Below is a list of eight court actions or investigations involving physicians or their practices this year:
1. Former Gallatin, Tenn.-based Comprehensive Pain Specialists CEO John Davis was found guilty of participating in a $4 million illegal kickback scheme.
2. The Department of Justice charged 32 people in Tennessee, including Jeffrey Young, a nurse practitioner known as the "Rock Doc."
3. American Pain Management owner Scott Novick was sentenced to more than six years in prison — plus three years of supervised release — for participating in a $2.2 million Medicare fraud scheme.
3. Anesthesiologist James Allen Jr., DO, pleaded guilty June 4 to filing false tax returns for eight years.
4. Six people, including two physicians and three registered pharmacists in the Southern District of Ohio, were charged by the U.S. Justice Department with unlawful distribution of controlled substances and conspiracy to obtain controlled substances through fraud.
5. Louisiana neurologist Anil Prasad, MD, was charged with conspiring to dispense controlled substances and commit healthcare fraud.
6. Five medical professionals in Kentucky's Eastern District were charged in connection with schemes involving healthcare fraud and the illegal distribution of controlled substances.
7. Two physicians were charged in the U.S. Justice Department's Appalachian Regional Prescription Opioid Strike Force takedown. An Alabama physician was charged with recruiting young women he had sexual relationships with to be patients at his clinic and allowing them and their associates to abuse drugs at his house. A second physician in Alabama allegedly dispensed controlled substances and prescription drugs directly from the clinic.
8. Medtronic-owned medical device company Covidien will pay $17,477,947 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act.