Business Law Health Law Committee

In calculating the Medicare fraction of the disproportionate share hospital adjustment, an individual is “entitled to supplementary security income benefits” when she is eligible to receive an SSI cash payment during the month of her hospitalization. Read more

Indictment for violation of the anti–kickback statute need not negate the “bona fide employment” safe harbor affirmative defense Code section 1278.5 does. Read more

Health insurers regulated by the California Department of Insurance are not subject to the Knox-Keene Act. Read more

Department of Health Care Services’ Medi-Cal overpayment formula may be void as an unlawful underground regulation. Read more

Kimberly Montoya filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against Dr. Aaron Fowler, alleging that he negligently failed to order a CT scan, despite observing signs of potential stroke, at a time when she might have been a candidate for treatment to reduce the long-term damage from her stroke. Read more

Non-licentiate directors of a private corporation lack statutory authority to perform medical peer review. Read more

Medical expert’s declaration that lacked factual details and a reasoned explanation for concluding that no surgical malpractice occurred failed to negate a triable issue of material fact. Read more

County violates no ministerial duty by sending 5150 patients with mental (but not physical) health disorders to an acute hospital’s emergency department. Read more

Separate MICRA caps are available for survivor and wrongful death claims stemming from the same medical malpractice. Read more

Charlie L. v. Kangavari (Jan. 2, 2025, B327714) __ Cal.App.5th __, 2025 WL 23756 Statute imposing stricter expert witness qualifications in hospital emergency care situations applies to physicians who remotely consult in treatment of ER patients. Charlie L. was brought to a hospital’s emergency department, where the attending physician issued “stat” orders for an X-ray and ultrasound of Charlie’s abdomen. Dr. Peyman Kangavari, an on-call radiologist working remotely, promptly reviewed the images and reported his conclusions to the attending physician,… Read more