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This episode of ala Speaking

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of Health Law is brought to you by HLA members

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and donors like you. For more

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information, visit american health law.org

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.

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Hi, I'm Norm tab . With this month's edition of the lighter

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side of health law. It's the Thought Accounts. Brown

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University has agreed to pay $1.5

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million to settle a class action brought by students. Their

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complaint, Brown charged them its regular tuition

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and fees, and then simply because of a deadly

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pandemic sweeping the nation switched some

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classes to remote learning rather than live

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and in person . 1.5 million is

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a lot of money. So why do I call this piece?

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It's the thought that counts because there

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are 10,000 members of the class. That means that

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even if there were no attorneys' fees or costs, each

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student would receive a whopping $150.

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If the lawyers take the typical one third that

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lowers the figure to $100. Maybe

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it's the principle of the thing. Don't make a

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pig of yourself. How many times did your mother tell

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you not to make a pig of yourself? Apparently, Astair

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Crosby's mother didn't tell him often enough, or

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maybe he simply ignored her. At any

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rate, acting like a pig cost him his job.

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Astair was a fraud investigator with Highmark

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Health. During an audit, he found that several

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doctors had felony convictions and

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others didn't have Medicaid licenses. He

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reported the findings, but nothing was done about it.

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Fast forward one year, Allister was

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fired. He sued claiming the firing

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was retaliation for reporting fraudulent activity.

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But Astair lost the case and his

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job. Why ? Because the real reason

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he was fired was for consistently

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calling a coworker , Ms . Piggy

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and Aking at her. Yes,

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Aking at her hurt . So listen to

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your mother. The case is Crosby versus Highmark.

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Third Circuit, A change of heart. Judge

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Jenny Rivera of New York State's highest court made

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headlines for her principle stand against Covid

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vaccination. When the court decreed that all

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judges must be vaccinated, she stood

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her ground and refused siding, health issues

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and conducting her court business by Zoom.

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Then in late July, she announced

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that her health issues had suddenly

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disappeared and yes, she would be vaccinated

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after all. Meanwhile, in

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totally unrelated court news, the

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chief judge of that court announced her

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own resignation creating a vacancy.

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In that position, a vacancy filled

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traditionally by the most senior judge

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on the court and purely by coincidence,

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the most senior judge is the newly

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vaccinated judge Jenny Rivera. Another

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downside of working at home, Okay, there are

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tons of upsides to working at home, No

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commuting time or costs , lower dry cleaning

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bills, comfy clothes and all the rest. But here's

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a case revealing a downside and associate with

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one of DC's biggest law firms. Worked

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at home on Farm Giant Mercks

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acquisition of a company called Pan. Her

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boyfriend Seth. Mark was living with her

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and he overheard her on the phone talking about

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the project. He supplemented what he overheard

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by rifling through her work documents

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when he wasn't looking, he gained enough inside information

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to recognize that Pantheon stock was

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due for a big increase in price once

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Word got out about the acquisition. So he

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bought a ton of Pantheon stock. He and a cohort

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made it cool and illegal. 1.4

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million on the transactions. Well, the

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authorities suspected something, so they interrogated

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Seth and Seth Being Seth lied about

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everything, he's now charged with 17

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counts of fraud each carrying a maximum of

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20 years. His cohort is charged with

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22 counts, so that's a downside

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of working at home and of sleeping with the enemy.

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Sick of insurance company denials. Have

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you ever been sick of medical insurance company denials?

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Sandy honing was literally

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so she did something about it. Sandy has

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a stomach condition called gastroparesis,

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which causes frequent vomiting over

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three times a day. It can be treated through Botox

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injections to her specter done endoscopically,

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but Anthem Blue Cross denied coverage

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claiming it wasn't medically necessary. Sandy

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wrote a letter appealing the decision, but when

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she tried to hand deliver it to Anthem headquarters,

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they wouldn't let her in the building. She said she

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was told she had to mail the letter along

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with appropriate documentation. So

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with someone taking a video of the incident against

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the backdrop of Anthem headquarters, she

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opened the envelope and vomited into

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it. She continued to vomit several times

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in the parking lot. The video has now been viewed

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all over the world on Instagram, Twitter,

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and YouTube. But where

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the reply all trap, this is

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a variant of the reply all trap.

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You know when someone replies to everyone

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on the email chain rather than just the sender.

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In this case, it was a text rather than an

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email. Texas prosecutor Kacha PTO

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chatted about a ruling against her on

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a current criminal case. The chat audience was

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a sympathetic group made up of fellow prosecutors,

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just one problem. The judge in the current

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case is a former prosecutor and no

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one had taken him off the chat list, so

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he received catches text when the

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defense lawyer heard about it, he moved for a mistrial

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based on catches unilateral conversation

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about the case with the judge. The judge was

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fuming as he granted the mistrial motion

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legal quiz. Here's the legal quiz. A

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doctor on the voluntary faculty staff of

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Yale Med School tweets that Donald

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Trump and Allen Deitz have similar speech

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patterns, which suggests that

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they have a quote shared psychosis. After

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receiving a complaint from Deitz, the

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med school fires the doctor for the tweet. She

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sues for wrongful termination. Does she have a

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case? No. Rule. The federal court

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for two reasons. First, she was

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a quote voluntary faculty member

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and not a true employee. There was

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no contract for the med school to breach. Second,

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she violated professional ethics by

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quote , publicly diagnosing the two men in

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her tweet. The case is Lee versus Yale,

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District, Connecticut. The days of

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her life. This is another

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installment in the saga called The

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Days of Her Life. At

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the end of our last episode, Elizabeth Holmes and

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her boyfriend Sonny , be wonk , have been convicted

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of defrauding investors of hundreds

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of millions of dollars. By perpetrating the

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Theranos blood test fraud, young Elizabeth

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nervously awaited sentencing, a sentencing

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that could result in years of prison and a

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facility with no spa, tanning

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booth or nail salon. Young

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Elizabeth's future looked bleak indeed

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, but await This week's

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episode brings renewed hope to Elizabeth.

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She has filed a motion for a new trial on

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what grounds Because of information

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and prosecution witness Adam Rosen has

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tearfully confided to her boyfriend, not

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son . He was the old boyfriend, but Billy , the

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new boyfriend . And just what did

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Adam tell Billy That

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he feels very bad about his testimony and

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that the prosecution tried to make things sound worse than

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they really were. Will Elizabeth

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get a new trial, New hope, a

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new boyfriend. Tune in next weekend

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. Remember like Sands through

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the hourglass. So are the days

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of her life a razor distinction.

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Jennifer Harkey has suffered from some nab from

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an early age. She walks in her sleep. She

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was on an overnight business trip when her condition

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reared its ugly head, or should I say its

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sleepy head . Jennifer sleep walked

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to the hotel room of her colleagues . Scott

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O'Donnell knocked, entered and climbed

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into bed asleep all the time.

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Scott repeatedly told her to leave, but

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she didn't wake up. Scott colleague

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, HR director, who after several tries, woke

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Jennifer and let her back to her room back at

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the office . HR ordered her to see a

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doctor who confirmed her condition as some

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neb . When she was fired for the hotel

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incident, Jennifer sued alleging discrimination

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against her for a disability. The

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court granted the employer summary judgment and

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the fifth Circuit affirmed the reasoning. Jennifer

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wasn't fired for her sleepwalking. She was fired

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because of what happened when she

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sleepwalked. To me, that's a little like saying,

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I didn't fire you for being blind. I

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fired you for walking into things. The

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case is Harky versus next to Jan

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Healthcare Fifth Circuit complaint department. This

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month, the complaint department deals with the term throw

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under the bus, as in when the partner

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complained that the memo was late , the associate threw

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the legal assistant under the bus. We

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know what it's supposed to mean because we hear

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it so often, but that doesn't make it right as

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a metaphor. It doesn't make sense. It's

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supposed to mean shifting the blame, but it doesn't. How

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would killing the legal assistant get the associate

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off the hook? The partner would still blame

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the associate for a late memo and

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also for murdering a perfectly good legal assistant.

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Besides that, we already have time honored

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metaphors that work. How about the associate

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scapegoated the legal assistant or made

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the legal assistant the scapegoat, or maybe

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even made the legal assistant the

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patsy? Those metaphors make sense. Plus,

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nobody gets killed . Well, that's it for this

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month's edition . I hope you liked it . I'll be back next

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month with another edition of the Lighter Side of Health

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Law .

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Thank you for listening. If

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you enjoyed this episode, be sure to

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subscribe to ALA Speaking of Health Law

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wherever you get your podcasts. To

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learn more about ALA and the educational

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resources available to the health law community,

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visit American health law.org

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