AHLA's Speaking of Health Law

The Lighter Side of Health Law – September 2022

September 30, 2022 AHLA Podcasts
AHLA's Speaking of Health Law
The Lighter Side of Health Law – September 2022
Show Notes Transcript

AHLA's monthly podcast featuring health lawyer and blogger Norm Tabler's informative and entertaining take on recent health law and other legal developments.

To learn more about AHLA and the educational resources available to the health law community, visit americanhealthlaw.org.

Speaker 1:

This episode of ala Speaking of Health Law is brought to you by HLA members and donors like you. For more information, visit american health law.org.

Speaker 2:

Hi, I'm Norm tab. With this month's edition of the lighter side of health law. It's the Thought Accounts. Brown University has agreed to pay$1.5 million to settle a class action brought by students. Their complaint, Brown charged them its regular tuition and fees, and then simply because of a deadly pandemic sweeping the nation switched some classes to remote learning rather than live and in person. 1.5 million is a lot of money. So why do I call this piece? It's the thought that counts because there are 10,000 members of the class. That means that even if there were no attorneys' fees or costs, each student would receive a whopping$150. If the lawyers take the typical one third that lowers the figure to$100. Maybe it's the principle of the thing. Don't make a pig of yourself. How many times did your mother tell you not to make a pig of yourself? Apparently, Astair Crosby's mother didn't tell him often enough, or maybe he simply ignored her. At any rate, acting like a pig cost him his job. Astair was a fraud investigator with Highmark Health. During an audit, he found that several doctors had felony convictions and others didn't have Medicaid licenses. He reported the findings, but nothing was done about it. Fast forward one year, Allister was fired. He sued claiming the firing was retaliation for reporting fraudulent activity. But Astair lost the case and his job. Why? Because the real reason he was fired was for consistently calling a coworker, Ms. Piggy and Aking at her. Yes, Aking at her hurt. So listen to your mother. The case is Crosby versus Highmark. Third Circuit, A change of heart. Judge Jenny Rivera of New York State's highest court made headlines for her principle stand against Covid vaccination. When the court decreed that all judges must be vaccinated, she stood her ground and refused siding, health issues and conducting her court business by Zoom. Then in late July, she announced that her health issues had suddenly disappeared and yes, she would be vaccinated after all. Meanwhile, in totally unrelated court news, the chief judge of that court announced her own resignation creating a vacancy. In that position, a vacancy filled traditionally by the most senior judge on the court and purely by coincidence, the most senior judge is the newly vaccinated judge Jenny Rivera. Another downside of working at home, Okay, there are tons of upsides to working at home, No commuting time or costs, lower dry cleaning bills, comfy clothes and all the rest. But here's a case revealing a downside and associate with one of DC's biggest law firms. Worked at home on Farm Giant Mercks acquisition of a company called Pan. Her boyfriend Seth. Mark was living with her and he overheard her on the phone talking about the project. He supplemented what he overheard by rifling through her work documents when he wasn't looking, he gained enough inside information to recognize that Pantheon stock was due for a big increase in price once Word got out about the acquisition. So he bought a ton of Pantheon stock. He and a cohort made it cool and illegal. 1.4 million on the transactions. Well, the authorities suspected something, so they interrogated Seth and Seth Being Seth lied about everything, he's now charged with 17 counts of fraud each carrying a maximum of 20 years. His cohort is charged with 22 counts, so that's a downside of working at home and of sleeping with the enemy. Sick of insurance company denials. Have you ever been sick of medical insurance company denials? Sandy honing was literally so she did something about it. Sandy has a stomach condition called gastroparesis, which causes frequent vomiting over three times a day. It can be treated through Botox injections to her specter done endoscopically, but Anthem Blue Cross denied coverage claiming it wasn't medically necessary. Sandy wrote a letter appealing the decision, but when she tried to hand deliver it to Anthem headquarters, they wouldn't let her in the building. She said she was told she had to mail the letter along with appropriate documentation. So with someone taking a video of the incident against the backdrop of Anthem headquarters, she opened the envelope and vomited into it. She continued to vomit several times in the parking lot. The video has now been viewed all over the world on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. But where the reply all trap, this is a variant of the reply all trap. You know when someone replies to everyone on the email chain rather than just the sender. In this case, it was a text rather than an email. Texas prosecutor Kacha PTO chatted about a ruling against her on a current criminal case. The chat audience was a sympathetic group made up of fellow prosecutors, just one problem. The judge in the current case is a former prosecutor and no one had taken him off the chat list, so he received catches text when the defense lawyer heard about it, he moved for a mistrial based on catches unilateral conversation about the case with the judge. The judge was fuming as he granted the mistrial motion legal quiz. Here's the legal quiz. A doctor on the voluntary faculty staff of Yale Med School tweets that Donald Trump and Allen Deitz have similar speech patterns, which suggests that they have a quote shared psychosis. After receiving a complaint from Deitz, the med school fires the doctor for the tweet. She sues for wrongful termination. Does she have a case? No. Rule. The federal court for two reasons. First, she was a quote voluntary faculty member and not a true employee. There was no contract for the med school to breach. Second, she violated professional ethics by quote, publicly diagnosing the two men in her tweet. The case is Lee versus Yale, District, Connecticut. The days of her life. This is another installment in the saga called The Days of Her Life. At the end of our last episode, Elizabeth Holmes and her boyfriend Sonny, be wonk, have been convicted of defrauding investors of hundreds of millions of dollars. By perpetrating the Theranos blood test fraud, young Elizabeth nervously awaited sentencing, a sentencing that could result in years of prison and a facility with no spa, tanning booth or nail salon. Young Elizabeth's future looked bleak indeed, but await This week's episode brings renewed hope to Elizabeth. She has filed a motion for a new trial on what grounds Because of information and prosecution witness Adam Rosen has tearfully confided to her boyfriend, not son. He was the old boyfriend, but Billy, the new boyfriend. And just what did Adam tell Billy That he feels very bad about his testimony and that the prosecution tried to make things sound worse than they really were. Will Elizabeth get a new trial, New hope, a new boyfriend. Tune in next weekend. Remember like Sands through the hourglass. So are the days of her life a razor distinction. Jennifer Harkey has suffered from some nab from an early age. She walks in her sleep. She was on an overnight business trip when her condition reared its ugly head, or should I say its sleepy head. Jennifer sleep walked to the hotel room of her colleagues. Scott O'Donnell knocked, entered and climbed into bed asleep all the time. Scott repeatedly told her to leave, but she didn't wake up. Scott colleague, HR director, who after several tries, woke Jennifer and let her back to her room back at the office. HR ordered her to see a doctor who confirmed her condition as some neb. When she was fired for the hotel incident, Jennifer sued alleging discrimination against her for a disability. The court granted the employer summary judgment and the fifth Circuit affirmed the reasoning. Jennifer wasn't fired for her sleepwalking. She was fired because of what happened when she sleepwalked. To me, that's a little like saying, I didn't fire you for being blind. I fired you for walking into things. The case is Harky versus next to Jan Healthcare Fifth Circuit complaint department. This month, the complaint department deals with the term throw under the bus, as in when the partner complained that the memo was late, the associate threw the legal assistant under the bus. We know what it's supposed to mean because we hear it so often, but that doesn't make it right as a metaphor. It doesn't make sense. It's supposed to mean shifting the blame, but it doesn't. How would killing the legal assistant get the associate off the hook? The partner would still blame the associate for a late memo and also for murdering a perfectly good legal assistant. Besides that, we already have time honored metaphors that work. How about the associate scapegoated the legal assistant or made the legal assistant the scapegoat, or maybe even made the legal assistant the patsy? Those metaphors make sense. Plus, nobody gets killed. Well, that's it for this month's edition. I hope you liked it. I'll be back next month with another edition of the Lighter Side of Health Law.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to ALA Speaking of Health Law wherever you get your podcasts. To learn more about ALA and the educational resources available to the health law community, visit American health law.org.