51˶

Foot Doc's Second Murder-for-Hire Accusation; Doc Accused of Drugging, Raping Women

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

by Kristina Fiore, Director of Enterprise & Investigative Reporting, 51˶

MedpageToday
Legal Break over a blindfolded Lady Justice statue holding scales.

Former New York podiatrist Ira Bernstein has been charged for to have his estranged wife murdered. Bernstein previously served almost 5 years in prison for plotting a hit against his wife. (LoHud.com)

New York gastroenterologist Zhi Alan Cheng, MD, has been accused of . (NBC New York)

Virginia pharmacist Ronald Beasley II was sentenced to 2 years in prison for his role in a scheme that siphoned $1 million from Medicare by billing for expensive compounded drug creams that they never purchased or gave to patients. Patients received inexpensive compounded creams instead, .

A woman who posed as a nurse in eight states and was charged with stealing the identity of a Florida nurse and using her license to obtain jobs . (WSB-TV)

Jamere Mykel Miller has been , his ex-girlfriend and a nurse at Detroit Medical Center; authorities say he shot her multiple times. (Detroit Free Press)

Colorado physician Francis Joseph, MD, was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for stealing about $250,000 from two COVID relief programs. Prosecutors said Joseph for his own personal expenses, according to the DOJ.

Two transgender women alleging that Tennessee's employee benefits program discriminates against transgender people. Both women's doctors deemed gender-related surgeries necessary to treat their gender dysphoria, but Tennessee's Comprehensive Medical and Hospitalization Program denies coverage of surgery for "sex transformations." (MedCity News)

VHS of Michigan -- which includes Detroit Medical Center (DMC), Vanguard Health Systems, and Tenet Healthcare -- will pay almost $30 million to settle claims that it provided kickbacks to certain referring physicians. Prosecutors alleged that two hospitals in the DMC system provided the services of advanced practice professionals to 13 doctors at no cost or below fair market value, because of their large number of patient referrals to DMC facilities, .

Planned Parenthood has that requires healthcare providers to tell patients that medication abortion can be reversed -- a claim that's not supported by evidence. (Reuters)

Merck has sued to enacted by the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reuters)

A woman in Washington state who has tuberculosis and has resisted treatment so that she could be treated for the infectious disease. (KOMO News)

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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.