Privacy, Medicaid fraud lawsuits yield settlements in Calif., N.Y.

Parties in health care court cases in California and New York reach settlements after privacy and Medicaid fraud lawsuits.

Los Angeles Times: Prime Healthcare Settles Federal Patient-Privacy Case For $275,000 
The case stemmed from allegations that Prime Healthcare and its Shasta Regional Medical Center violated patient confidentiality by sharing a woman's medical files with journalists and sending an email about her treatment to nearly 800 hospital employees. Last year, California regulators fined the Ontario hospital chain $95,000 for the unauthorized disclosure of medical information in this matter. The company said it's appealing that state fine (Terhune, 6/11).

The New York Times: New York State Gets $2.5 Million In Medicaid Fraud Case
The state attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, said on Tuesday that his office had reached a settlement with the estate of Ms. Sieger to pay a total of $2.5 million to the state's Medicaid program, which includes $1.2 million in reimbursements, and $1.3 million for damages (Hu, 6/11).

And in Florida, a former health care CEO is found guilty of Medicaid fraud --

The Wall Street Journal: Wellcare Former CEO, CFO Found Guilty of Florida Medicaid Fraud
Former CEO Todd S. Farha and former CFO Paul L. Behrens were both convicted of two counts of health care fraud. Mr. Behrens was also convicted of two counts of making false statements relating to health-care matters, according to the Justice Department. Also convicted of two counts of health care fraud was William L. Kale, former vice president of Wellcare unit Harmony Behavioral Health Inc. Peter E. Clay, former WellCare vice president of medical economics, was found guilty of making false statements to a law-enforcement officer (Chaudhuri, 6/11).