Surgeon Indicted Over Shootout; $15M Asthma Death Settlement; Ketamine Doc Suspended

Thomas Steffens, DO, the Colorado surgeon accused of shooting at federal agents who were trying to arrest him in Florida, has been indicted on multiple charges, including attempted murder of a federal officer. (WPBF)

A New York nurse who’d just come off an overnight shift was killed in a hit-and-run accident. (ABC News)

Meanwhile, the trial began for a California nurse charged with murder in a car crash that killed six people in 2022. (KTLA)

A New Jersey hospital reached a $15 million settlement with the family of a man who alleges he was discharged in the middle of an asthma attack, ultimately leading to his death. (People)

Iowa anesthesiologist Adrian Gollas, MD, is suing the state’s medical board for refusing to issue him a license. The board said Gollas failed to report past sanctions imposed in other states. (Iowa Capital Dispatch)

Canadian family doctor Michael Hart, MD, was suspended after he asked patients to sign away their right to sue him before prescribing ketamine over the phone. (National Post)

Tennessee’s health facilities commission released an 80-page report on the medication errors that occurred at Ascension Saint Thomas Midtown hospital. One patient remained on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation while three others continued to have lower-extremity neurologic impairment, it stated. (WKRN)

An Alabama man was sentenced to a year of probation for a scheme in which he collaborated with a doctor and others to illegally distribute promethazine-codeine, which is also known as “purple drank,” federal prosecutors said.

A healthcare provider group will pay $541 million to settle allegations that it submitted false diagnosis codes in order to pull higher payments from Medicare Advantage, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reported.

DermTech will pay up to $5 million to resolve allegations that it billed Medicare for skin cancer tests it knew were faulty, the DOJ said.