— A weekly roundup of healthcare's encounters with the courts
by Kristina Fiore, Director of Enterprise & Investigative Reporting, MedPage Today
October 22, 2026 • 2 min read
The mom of a toddler who was pronounced dead but later found breathing in the hospital morgue is questioning the emergency physician's decisionopens in a new tab or window to call the death. (ABC 15)
Steven Powell, MD, former chief medical officer at a New Hampshire hospital, was sentenced to just over 1 year in prisonopens in a new tab or window for a $1.9 million Medicare billing scheme in which he prescribed unnecessary medical devices for patients he never met. (NHPR)
Edward Michelson, MD, of Texas, had his license temporarily suspendedopens in a new tab or window following an assault investigation. (CBS 4)
An inmate in Tennessee escaped from a Nashville hospitalopens in a new tab or window. (News Channel 9)
Ohio ob/gyn Patrick Muffley, DO, pleaded guilty to defrauding Medicaidopens in a new tab or window of more than $1.6 million related to phony addiction medicine claims and telehealth services. (WBNS)
Three nurses have sued a rehabilitation center in Ohio, alleging they were wrongfully terminatedopens in a new tab or window after reporting unsafe and improper practices. (WFMJ)
Somerset Lifesciences will pay $4 million to resolve allegations that it improperly billed Medicare for its over-the-counter eye drop product olopatadine, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announcedopens in a new tab or window.
The agency also said the CEO of a healthcare software company was sentenced to 19 years in prison after his platform generated false doctors' orders and prescriptions to defraud Medicare of more than $1 billionopens in a new tab or window.
And the DOJ's fraudulent COVID testing scheme crackdown continues. Steven Murphy, MD, of Connecticut, will pay $860,000opens in a new tab or window to settle allegations of fraudulent billing for tests for patients who were supposed to be uninsured. A Maryland man was convicted for billing Medicare more than $18 millionopens in a new tab or window for COVID and respiratory virus tests they didn't need. And an Illinois lab was charged in a $66 million schemeopens in a new tab or window to bill for hundreds of thousands of COVID tests that were never performed.