Here are seven health systems that faced controversies in the last two months, reported by Becker's since June 5.
1. Yakima (Wash.) Valley Memorial Hospital agreed to pay $240,000 to resolve data privacy allegations after 23 security guards allegedly looked through patient medical records without a job-related purpose.
2. A Bethany, Okla., resident is suing Oklahoma City-based Integris Health, alleging that the system allowed third parties to take personal patient healthcare information for advertising purposes.
3. Pediatric intensivist David Lankford, DO, is suing Fort Wayne, Ind.-based Lutheran Health Network, his former employer, to get out of his noncompete agreement.
4. A patient at Great Valley Cardiology in Scranton, Pa., filed a lawsuit against the practice following a data breach that compromised the personal information of 181,764 patients. Now, two more lawsuits have been filed against the practice and Commonwealth Health System, which the practice is affiliated with.
5. A California health system and three healthcare providers agreed to pay $68 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act and the California False Claims Act by submitting or causing the submission of false claims to Medi-Cal.
6. New York City-based NewYork-Presbyterian was named in a civil lawsuit that alleges Zhi Alan Cheng, MD, a gastroenterologist who previously practiced at the health system's Flushing, N.Y., location, drugged and sexually assaulted a patient.
7. Georgia legislatures criticized Atlanta-based Wellstar Health System for committing to invest nearly $800 million in a planned partnership with Augusta (Ga.) University Health System to develop an ASC, a medical office building and a new hospital after shutting down two of its own Atlanta-area hospitals in 2022.