Patsy Newitt

A Florida-based healthcare provider group has agreed to pay $541.5 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations of submitting false diagnosis codes to inflate Medicare Advantage payments, one of the largest MA risk adjustment settlements on record, the Justice Department…

Wesleyan Medical Practice in Owensboro, Ky. will close in December 2026 when its founder, Sara Doolin-Thompson, DNP, retires from private practice, according to a Facebook post from the practice. Ms. Doolin-Thompson, who opened the practice in July 2022, said the…

Fewer physicians hold equity in their ASCs than a decade ago. But for the ones who still do, that stake is worth more than ever. Physician ownership has always set ASCs apart from hospital-owned outpatient departments. It gives physician-owners a…

Physicians’ closest friends tend to mirror them, same life stage, similar socioeconomic background and shared political views, according to Medscape’s “Physician Friendships Report 2026,” published Aug. 25. Medscape surveyed 1,002 physicians across 20 specialties from March 5 to May 22.…

Regulators haven’t touched the Stark law’s core rules in years, but enforcement hasn’t slowed down.  Record False Claims Act recoveries, a surge in whistleblower suits and a growing wave of self-disclosures all point to a compliance environment that’s only getting…

Soris Pain & Vascular Institute, a new physician-led outpatient platform for musculoskeletal pain and vascular care, has launched and named Yuji Okuno, MD, PhD, as founding physician and Osman Ahmed, MD, as chief medical officer, according to an Aug. 26…

Five cases involving physicians and physician-adjacent fraud schemes have surfaced in a single month, collectively totaling more than $195 million in alleged fraud, settlements and indictments.  Here are the five cases: 1. Chesapeake Regional Medical Center has reached a tentative…

A former senior director at Optum has been sentenced to 36 months in prison for creating a no-show job for a friend and pocketing more than $950,000 in kickbacks from the fraudulent salary over three years, the Justice Department said…

ASCs have become one of the hottest assets in healthcare dealmaking.  Private equity is deploying record sums, health systems are paying up for outpatient access points and the biggest ASC platforms are trading assets in both directions. Here are 10…

Statehouses are expected to pick back up private equity oversight in 2027 as most 2026 bills that stalled didn’t fail on the merits, they simply ran out of time before session ended.  Bills that died in committee or fell out…