Nurse Stormed U.S. Capitol? Doc Guilty of Wife’s Murder; $120M Malpractice Award

A Maine nurse has been arrested for her alleged role in the storming of the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. (WMTW)

California fertility doctor Eric Scott Sills, MD, was found guilty of murdering his wife and staging it as an accident in 2016. (KTLA 5)

A New York hospital will have to pay $120 million in a malpractice verdict where resident physicians reportedly overlooked signs of a stroke on CT images. (Radiology Business)

More parents are now alleging that Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston improperly disposed of infant remains. Five families now charge that their infant children’s remains were discarded against their wishes during a 17-month period starting in August 2020. (Boston Herald)

Urologist Francis Martinis, MD, who appeared on the Bravo reality show “Below Deck,” was arrested and accused of stealing the identities of other cast members to obtain prescription drugs. (NBC New York)

A Texas man who threatened a Boston doctor who provides healthcare to transgender patients pleaded guilty to making threats and faces 5 years in prison. (Boston.com)

Seattle Children’s Hospital has sued to block the Texas Attorney General from procuring documents his office had requested relating to gender transition policies and care provided to Texas children. (KXAN)

Indiana health system Community Health Network will pay $345 million to settle charges stemming from a whistleblower complaint that it tried to recruit doctors with outsized pay in order to get their profitable referrals, according to federal prosecutors.

Massachusetts orthopedic surgeon Olarewaju Oladipo, MD, was convicted for his role in an upcoding scheme, in which he billed for more complex services than he provided, federal prosecutors said. Oladipo reportedly often billed for more than 60 patients per day, and sometimes more than 90 — all while using billing codes corresponding to visits of 15, 25, 30, or even 45 minutes.

A U.S. District Court judge in New York has ruled that expert witnesses prepared to testify in a lawsuit claiming that acetaminophen (Tylenol) can cause autism if mothers take it during pregnancy haven’t been able to support their conclusions with scientific evidence. Judge Denise Cote wrote that the experts were “cherry-picking” data and that they “obscured the complexities, inconsistencies, and weaknesses in the underlying data.” (Reuters)

New York cardiologist Niranjan Mittal, MD, has been charged with fraud for allegedly performing unnecessary vascular procedures and improperly billing public and private insurers, according to federal prosecutors.

Two companies will pay more than $14.7 million to resolve allegations that they submitted claims to federal healthcare programs for a higher level of remote cardiac monitoring than physicians had intended to order or that was medically necessary, federal prosecutors said.