A package of healthcare laws signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis March 21 contains new rules for hospital emergency departments.

Eight nurses at Worcester, Mass.-based Saint Vincent Hospital have filed a lawsuit against the facility and its owner, Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare, alleging they were wrongfully terminated after raising concerns about staffing shortages and care quality. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a package of healthcare bills designed to grow the state's healthcare workforce, expand healthcare access and promote innovation in the industry.

The Senate Finance Committee is working to secure a hearing with UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty this spring, The Washington Post reported March 22. 

The emergency department at Saratoga Hospital in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., was evacuated on March 21 after Jonathan Gardner, 31, who was treated and released, made claims of possessing a bomb while in the ED.

A South Carolina man who owned at least 10 durable medical equipment companies was sentenced to nine years in prison for what the Justice Department called "one of the largest Medicare fraud schemes in history."

Providers are beginning to file lawsuits against UnitedHealth Group's Change Healthcare over the Feb. 21 cyberattack that has crippled hospitals, physician practices and pharmacies across the country.

A Washington judge ordered a debt collection agency hired by Renton, Wash.-based Providence to pay $827,000 for violating patients' medical debt collection rights more than 82,000 times. 

Police have arrested two men who are suspects in a coordinated attack March 20 to facilitate the escape of a prison inmate at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, Idaho. Three correctional officers were shot in the incident. 

A Tennessee podiatrist was convicted of defrauding Medicare and the state's Medicaid program by prescribing and dispensing medically unnecessary foot bath medications.

Former NBA shooting guard Antoine Wright was sentenced to time served for his role in a scheme to defraud the league's healthcare plan out of $5 million, Law360 reported March 19. 

An Iowa hospital nurse is charged with allegedly overdosing patients with medications, the Iowa Capitol Dispatch reported March 18.

1. Increased government interest in False Claims Act, Stark Act and related issues. In 2023, the U.S. government and whistleblowers were involved in 543 False Claims Act settlements and judgments. This is the highest number recorded in a single year, with healthcare fraud making up the bulk of cases and valued at over $1.8 billion. 

Medical device manufacturers accounted for the most Medicaid fraud civil settlements and judgments in 2023, according to a report from the HHS Office of Inspector General. 

Copley Hospital in Morristown, Vt., is facing a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by its former emergency department director, who is alleging the hospital retaliated against him after he raised safety concerns related to the switch to a new records system, according to a report from VTDiggerVTDigger. 

CMS has sent a letter to HCA Healthcare's Mission Hospital in Asheville, N.C., to notify leadership that the hospital was found in violation of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act and must take action or risk losing federal funding, according to a letter obtained by the Citizen Times.

During a monthslong legal dispute between Merck and John Hopkins University over Keytruda patents, the drugmaker raised the issue to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, JD Supra reported March 13. 

Another woman has accused a New York City gastroenterologist of sexual abuse, NBC New York reported March. 14.

The University of Chicago Medical Center has been found responsible in a wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of a boy who died at age 4, and must pay $14 million to the family, The Chicago Tribune reported March 14.

The chief of rheumatology at Hartford (Conn.) HealthCare's Bone & Joint Institute has been found dead, days after he was arrested on child sexual exploitation charges, Connecticut State Police have confirmed.