Here are eight court cases involving physicians reported by Becker's since Feb. 1:
1. Noel DeLeon, a former office manager of a Newark, N.J.-based medical practice, admitted to conspiring with a physician to distribute dextroamphetamine-amphetamine, or Adderall, without a legitimate medical purpose.
2. Athens (Ga.) Heart Center and surgeon Subodh Agrawal, MD, have been ordered by a state court jury to pay $4.36 million in medical malpractice damages following the 2017 death of a patient.
3. Twenty-three Michigan residents have been charged for their alleged involvement in two schemes to defraud Medicare of more than $61.5 million by paying kickbacks and billing CMS for unnecessary medical services at physician clinics that were not provided. Here are more details on the charges.
4. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the convictions of Shakeel Kahn, MD, a physician who had been convicted of unlawfully prescribing opioids. See their reasoning here.
5. Hudson, Ohio-based physician Deepak Raheja, MD, was sentenced to prison and must pay $2.2 million after pleading guilty to his role in a pharmaceutical kickback scheme in which he and his co-conspirators increased prescriptions for Nuedexta, a drug manufactured to treat the neurological condition pseudobulbar affect, in exchange for money and other items of value
6. John Henson, MD, was ordered to pay $6.5 million in a settlement for misdiagnosing a patient who died in 2017. Dr. Henson failed to diagnose the patient with Lyme disease, from which the patient later died.
7. Pankaj Merchia, MD, and Shona Pendse, MD, were charged in a superseding indictment for tax evasion and fraud against the Internal Revenue Service.
8. Jeffrey Sutton, DO, pleaded guilty to 31 counts of illegally prescribing controlled substances, one count of illegally distributing controlled substances and 20 counts of healthcare fraud.