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Aborted Fetus Brings Wrongful Death Suit; Simone Gold's 'Boyfriend' Found Guilty

— A weekly roundup of healthcare's encounters with the courts

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Legal Break over a blindfolded Lady Justice statue holding scales.

An aborted fetus against the Arizona doctors and the clinic who provided the abortion. (Rolling Stone)

John Strand, the former underwear model and current associate of America's Frontline Doctors' Simone Gold, MD, JD, was for his role in the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol. During his trial, it came out that 56-year-old Gold is his employer and girlfriend. Strand argued that he was merely at the Capitol as Gold's bodyguard that day, but Assistant U.S. Attorney April Ayres-Perez told the jury, "John Strand was a 37-year-old man with his girlfriend. He was not being led around the Capitol by his mother." (Mother Jones)

Drugmaker Biogen will pay $900 million to settle charges that it paid kickbacks to doctors -- in the form of honoraria, speaker training fees, consulting fees, and meals -- in exchange for prescribing the company's multiple sclerosis drugs, .

Traveling nurses are , alleging they slashed their pay in a game of bait-and-switch. One lawyer who is currently targeting at least three agencies said he has documentation from some 450 nurses who reported pay cuts ranging from 25% to 70%. (Newsweek)

A Pennsylvania man was indicted for assaulting a man who volunteered as a reproductive health clinic escort. Mark Houck faces up to 11 years in prison and fines of up to $350,000, .

Oluwatobi Alabi Yerokun, MD, admitted to making false statements that durable medical equipment and genetic tests were medically necessary for more than 2,000 Medicare and Medicaid patients in Missouri whom he never met or examined, .

Victor Clark Kirk, the former CEO of St. Gabriel Health Clinic, was convicted for defrauding the Louisiana Medicaid program. , Kirk directed St. Gabriel practitioners to falsely diagnose students with mental health disorders, and provide educational programs to classrooms of students during regular class periods. He would allegedly then bill Medicaid for group psychotherapy.

Physicians for Informed Consent that it has filed an amicus curiae brief with the Supreme Court in support of municipal workers' rights to refuse COVID vaccines.

Residents of six nursing facilities in the Chicago area against the Alden Group, alleging systematic understaffing that has led to neglect, preventable injuries and illnesses, and dangerous living conditions.

Three Oregon hospital systems have in an attempt to end the warehousing of psychiatric patients in acute-care hospitals. (Willamette Week)

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    Kristina Fiore leads MedPage’s enterprise & investigative reporting team. She’s been a medical journalist for more than a decade and her work has been recognized by Barlett & Steele, AHCJ, SABEW, and others. Send story tips to k.fiore@medpagetoday.com.