Ex-hospital owner indicted in fraud
The former owner of a De Queen hospital was among 10 people indicted on charges of running a $1.4 billion rural hospital pass-through billing scheme, the Department of Justice announced in a news release.
Jorge Perez, 60, was charged with several offenses, including conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, substantive health care fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and substantive money laundering.
An assistant attorney general described the group as conducting a “massive, multi-state scheme to use small, rural hospitals as a hub for millions of dollars in fraudulent billings of private insurers.”
Five rural hospitals, not including the Arkansas hospital that Perez once owned, were involved in that plot, according to the Justice Department.
Perez led EmpowerHMS, a Missouri-based company, which operated De Queen Medical Center until financial distress forced the facility to close last year.
Sevier County voters recently approved a sales tax to help construct a new hospital.
Hunt exiting UAMS for post in Florida
The head of University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ pathology department, Dr. Jennifer Hunt, will leave the academic medical center for a position in Florida.
Hunt will serve as the chairwoman of the department of pathology, immunology and laboratory medicine at the University of Florida College of Medicine.
Hunt was one of five doctors nationwide selected for a fellowship from the Association for American Medical Colleges in 2019 and helped developed UAMS’ in-house test protocol for the novel coronavirus.
UAMS has not publicly announced her successor.
FDA issues hand sanitizer warning
The Food and Drug Administration has warned consumers in recent weeks about hand sanitizers that tested positive for methanol contamination, and manufacturers have recalled some products.
Methanol is toxic, can be absorbed through the skin and is harmful when ingested. Substantial exposure can cause nausea, “headache, blurred vision, permanent blindness, seizures, coma, permanent damage to the nervous system or death,” the health agency’s officials wrote on its website.
More information, including at least 30 products that have been recommended for recall, is available online: fda.gov.
E-cigarettes-sales bill clears Senate
A bill that aims to stop internet sales of e-cigarettes to children and that is co-sponsored by a member of the Arkansas delegation has passed in the Senate.
U.S. Sen. John Boozman is among 27 co-sponsors supporting Senate Bill 1253. The bill has bipartisan support.
The proposed legislation makes changes to taxation and mailing rules around e-cigarettes and requires the National Institutes of Health to study short- and long-term health effects of e-cigarette use by young people.
The bill has been sent to the House.