The Health Law Blog

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By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law The Health Law Firm has a number of experienced health law attorneys who are available as experts to provide opinions and testify as expert witnesses and to speak with newspaper, television and other media reporters and representatives on various issues, providing background, color, information and quotes. These attorneys include: George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., an attorney who is board cert...

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law On December 14, 2022, the Department of Health and Human Services HHS Office for Civil Rights OCR settled with New Vision Dental NVD over a potential HIPAA Privacy violation. The California-based dental practice paid $23,000 to OCR and agreed to implement a corrective action plan after allegedly including protected health information PHI in its responses to reviews on Yelp. The Complaint and Investigat...

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law and Hartley Brooks, Law Clerk, The Health Law Firm Facebook agreed to the largest ever data-privacy settlement in December 2022. The $725 million settlement comes after nearly five years of litigation and contentious negotiations. The class action lawsuit revolves around allegations that Facebook has been sharing user data with third parties without the user's consent or knowledge. The case stems from ...

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law Many nurses, nurse practitioners, and certified registered nurse anesthetists CRNAs carry professional malpractice insurance through NORCAL Mutual Insurance or one of the other similar insurance companies. This insurance is inexpensive and provides excellent coverage. What you may not realize, however, is that such insurance provides many added benefits, other than just coverage on nursing liability la...

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law Many healthcare professionals are unaware of the adverse long-term collateral effects of Medicare revocation or exclusion on their careers and future employment. However, if you are a physician, dentist, nurse, mental health counselor, psychologist, pharmacist, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, massage therapist, or other licensed health professional whose license is revoked or suspended, there ...

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law and Hartley Brooks, Law Clerk, The Health Law Firm On July 18, 2023, a federal judge in North Carolina granted a motion to dismiss a suit against Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune based on a state law four-year time bar on malpractice claims. Background Facts. We have the facts from the court's decision in this case. On December 3, 2016, the plaintiff patient arrived at the Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune Emerge...

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law The federal Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits remuneration in relation to the provision of a good, facility, service, or item for which payment may be made in whole or in part under a Federal health care program. 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7b b . The Anti-Kickback Statute goes on to define federal health care program as any government funded plan or program that provides health benefits or any state health c...

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law, and Hartley Brooks, Law Clerk, The Health Law Firm On May 18, 2023, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed a U.S. district court's decision to deny U.S. Nursing Corporation a new trial. The appellate court stated that the opposing counsel's closing argument and the erroneous preclusion of evidence had no substantial effect on the trial's outcome; thus there was no reversible...

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A, LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law and Hartley Brooks, Law Clerk, The Health Law Firm On June 21, 2023, the Court of Appeals of Iowa overturned the verdict in a nursing home negligence case that awarded $6 million in compensation and damages to the plaintiff. The case was reversed and remanded for a new trial because inadmissible hearsay testimony was admitted into evidence by the trial court judge. The testimony being appealed was that ...

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law, and Hartley Brooks, Law Clerk, The Health Law Firm To read the indictment, click here . On June 14, 2023, the previous Harvard morgue manager, his wife, and three others were indicted on charges of conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods in relation to their scheme of selling body parts from the Harvard medical school morgue. Following this indictment, two proposed class acti...