Doc’s Death Call Questioned; Inmate Escapes Hospital; Fired Nurses Sue

The mom of a toddler who was pronounced dead but later found breathing in the hospital morgue is questioning the emergency physician’s decision to call the death. (ABC 15)

Steven Powell, MD, former chief medical officer at a New Hampshire hospital, was sentenced to just over 1 year in prison for a $1.9 million Medicare billing scheme in which he prescribed unnecessary medical devices for patients he never met. (NHPR)

Edward Michelson, MD, of Texas, had his license temporarily suspended following an assault investigation. (CBS 4)

An inmate in Tennessee escaped from a Nashville hospital. (News Channel 9)

Ohio ob/gyn Patrick Muffley, DO, pleaded guilty to defrauding Medicaid of more than $1.6 million related to phony addiction medicine claims and telehealth services. (WBNS)

Three nurses have sued a rehabilitation center in Ohio, alleging they were wrongfully terminated after reporting unsafe and improper practices. (WFMJ)

Somerset Lifesciences will pay $4 million to resolve allegations that it improperly billed Medicare for its over-the-counter eye drop product olopatadine, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced.

The agency also said the CEO of a healthcare software company was sentenced to 19 years in prison after his platform generated false doctors’ orders and prescriptions to defraud Medicare of more than $1 billion.

And the DOJ’s fraudulent COVID testing scheme crackdown continues. Steven Murphy, MD, of Connecticut, will pay $860,000 to settle allegations of fraudulent billing for tests for patients who were supposed to be uninsured. A Maryland man was convicted for billing Medicare more than $18 million for COVID and respiratory virus tests they didn’t need. And an Illinois lab was charged in a $66 million scheme to bill for hundreds of thousands of COVID tests that were never performed.