Doctors are bound by oath to try to serve their patients in the best way that they can. They cannot afford to make any mistake, especially during major operations that might cost the life of their patients. When a doctor takes on too much work in an effort to get paid more, that can result in errors that may constitute a medical malpractice lawsuit.
A physician from New York was sentenced to four and a half years of imprisonment because of defrauding several health care insurance companies and amassing millions of dollars from it. Court documents also say that the doctor regularly treated 60 patients in a day in an effort to make more money. Several former patients claim he botched their surgeries, making their ailments worse.
For the health care fraud, the doctor was ordered to pay millions of dollars in restitution and now must deal with more than 250 civil suits of medical malpractice and wrongful deaths due to surgical errors filed against him.
From 2007 to 2011, the doctor cumulatively filed millions of dollars in claims for operations that he did not perform, being paid up to $13 million by both public and private health insurance companies. However, he was only sentenced to less than half of the prison time possible in the case, leading to the dissatisfaction of some of the complainants. They said that the doctor deserves more years in prison because patients have died due to his negligence.
If you or any of your family members have experienced medical malpractice or negligence, you can consult an attorney to understand your best course of action. You should not bear the responsibility of paying for the neglect of another who was paid to attend to you.
Source: lohud.com, “Surgeon Panos gets prison sentence; families don’t ‘think it’s enough’,” John W. Barry, March 8, 2014
