Poor treatment at Lehigh Valley mental health clinics was evident, patients say

From a longer report in the Lehigh Valley Live website

Photo caption:Lehigh Valley Community Mental Health Centers Inc. at 226 Northampton St., Easton, is seen July 20, 2015. It is one of 10 mental health clinics sued July 20, 2015, by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, along with owner Melissa Chlebowski and Melchor Martinez. Martinez is alleged to have run the Medicare- and Medicaid-funded clinics in Easton, Bethlehem, Allentown, Philadelphia and Raleigh, North Carolina, despite a 2000 ruling excluding him from participating in these and any federally funded health care programs.

Director Allison E. Frantz said the department received complaints about the delivery of care at Lehigh Valley Community Mental Health Centers Inc., now the target of a federal whistleblower lawsuit. The department forwarded the complaints, prompting an investigation, she said.

"The Northampton County DHS has taken steps to ensure the county's citizens' behavioral health treatment would not be jeopardized: the provider network was enhanced to include additional bi-cultural, bilingual treatment professionals and regular and frequent on-site clinical reviews, including additional billing audits," Frantz wrote in an email Tuesday.

After the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced the lawsuit Monday, patients were left with myriad questions about the care they had received and whether the five local centers in Easton, Bethlehem and Allentown would remain open.

The suit also targets the centers' owner, Melissa Chlebowski, and her husband, Melchor Martinez, both of Allentown, as well as four sister mental health centers in Philadelphia and one in North Carolina.

[...]

The suit alleges the mental health clinics used unqualified stand-ins for psychiatrists and rushed patients through "medication management" visits. Federal prosecutors also say the centers were really run by Martinez, despite being prohibited since 2000 from participating in Medicaid, Medicare or any federally funded health care programs.

The civil action seeks damages and penalties.

[...]

Fairfield psychiatrist charged with fraud. They submitted bills that added up to them seeing patients 24 hours a day.

The state attorney general is suing a Westport couple for Medicaid fraud, charging they submitted bills that added up to them seeing patients 24 hours a day.

Attorney General George Jepsen announced Thursday morning that Dr. Ashwini Sabnis, a psychiatrist, and her husband Saurav “Sam” Mohanty, co-owners of Brighter Concept, Inc., 2000 Post Road in Fairfield, allegedly filed false claims under the Connecticut Medical Assistance Program. The couple also operated a Brighter Concept office in New Haven.

Jepsen said he is seeking triple damages under the state’s False Claims Act for actions that occurred between January, 2010 and December of last year, including billing for services that garnered higher reimbursement levels than the services they actually provided. Jepsen alleged that the couple overbilled the state Department of Social Services by $768,171 during the four-year period.

The lawsuit, pursued by Jepsen and Department of Consumer Protection Commissioner Jonathan Harris, was filed in Hartford Superior Court.

"This action is being brought to seek damages, civil penalties and other relief due to a scheme that was perpetrated on a health care program intended to care for our most vulnerable citizens," Jepsen said in a statement. "Health care providers who accept taxpayer dollars must play by the rules."

The couple’s attorney, Ross Garber, declined comment.

The 42-page complaint alleges that the scheme included claims for services not rendered, as well as overbilling and filing false statements in a “systematic and persistent pattern of submitting false and fraudulent claims.” The lawsuit alleges that Sabnis and Mohanty discouraged auditors from the state Department of Social Services with claims that their computer system had crashed.

Sabnis regularly overbooked her scheduled Medicaid patients for 15 or 30 minute appointments, saw them for as little as 5 or 10 minutes, then used a reimbursement code that showed she spent as much as 75 to 80 minutes with them, the complaint said. The lawsuit alleges that there were 113 days when Sabnis billed the state for more than 24 hours of service for low-income and disabled patients.

Department of Social Services Commissioner Roderick L. Bremby praised the Attorney General’s investigation.

“Uprooting and eliminating this type of fraudulent activity requires the constant vigilance of oversight agencies,” Bremby said. “While the great majority of Medicaid-enrolled providers are professional and honest, the exceptions require aggressive action on behalf of the program’s overall integrity and the taxpayers who fund it.”

An East Tennessee State University medical school psychiatrist Sues Claiming False Arrest for DUI (Despite Failing Streetside Sobriety Tests)

Apparently local Law Enforcement was not appropriately deferential and arrested him because he failed the tests. Also, if he is in such rough shape (as alleged in the lawsuit), what business does he have being a psychistrist? Note this quote from the story:

Also, during the booking process, Agrawal said Stillwagon’s data entry device made a “machine gun” sound, which further terrified Agrawal.

I sure wouldn't want him even as a regular doctor! Paranoia anyone?

It is rare that a shrink gets the same treatment that patients often do. He also sounds like he is looking for a payday

From a report in the Johnson City Press

An East Tennessee State University medical school psychiatrist at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Mountain Home, has sued Washington County, Johnson City and a city police officer over an alleged bogus DUI arrest and his treatment while jailed nearly 36 hours.

Dr. Newton Agrawal filed the lawsuit through his attorney, Richard Pectol, in Washington County Circuit Court May 28, almost one year to the date of his arrest. Agrawal was pulled over around 11:50 p.m. on May 30, 2014, near the intersection of Buffalo and East Main streets by Johnson City Police Officer Kirt Stillwagon and ultimately arrested on two charges — DUI and violation of the light law. Months later, blood alcohol test results showed no alcohol in Agrawal’s system and a toxicology report indicated all drug tests were negative. Both charges were dismissed by state prosecutors in October.

According to the filing, Agrawal had attended a gathering of co-workers at Gourmet & Co. earlier in the evening, where he had one alcoholic drink around 7 p.m. During the time at the restaurant, Agrawal ate a meal and drank water. Around 11:30 p.m., Agrawal left the restaurant to drive home, but was pulled over by Stillwagon, “purportedly for driving with a headlight that was not illuminated,” the suit states.

Agrawal apparently admitted to Stillwagon that he had been at Gourmet & Co. and consumed one alcoholic drink. That’s when Stillwagon asked Agrawal for his license and vehicle registration. According to the warrant charging Agrawal with DUI, Stillwagon said the doctor “fumbled papers, losing focus on what was asked originally.” The warrant does not indicate Stillwagon smelled alcohol, observed bloodshot eyes on Agrawal or that Agrawal had slurred speech or was driving erratically.

Stillwagon then administered several field sobriety tests — finger dexterity, on which Stillwagon said Agrawal did poorly; recite the alphabet from E to Q, which was performed correctly; horizontal gaze nystagmus — the follow-my-finger” test; as well as the walk-a-straight-line test. Both of the last two tests were performed poorly, according to Stillwagon’s affidavit of the arrest.

Agrawal stated in the suit that he was forced to conduct the field sobriety tests on a sloped surface while wearing formal shoes and with flashing lights from three police cars blinding him. He also asked Stillwagon to allow him to calm down for a few minutes because the act of being pulled over, and that multiple police officers responded to the traffic stop, caused him to be nervous and anxious. The lawsuit indicates Stillwagon refused Agrawal any time to calm himself before performing the tests, and he also denies performing poorly on the tests.

Stillwagon took Agrawal to Johnson City Medical Center approximately one hour after the stop for a blood test, but did not perform a breathalyzer, according to the lawsuit.

Once at the jail, Agrawal said he was mistreated by booking officers who refused to allow him to call to a bondsman, tried to force him to sign a statement indicating he was suicidal and then refused Agrawal a mental health assessment when he requested one. Following the booking process, Agrawal said he was told to strip naked, and was then placed in a suicide watch cell where he was kept from May 31, 2014, until the morning of June 2, 2014. Also, during the booking process, Agrawal said Stillwagon’s data entry device made a “machine gun” sound, which further terrified Agrawal.

During that time in the suicide watch cell, Agrawal said he was given only a thin paper sheet to cover himself and was housed with two inmates also placed on suicide watch. Also, Agrawal said he attempted to get the attention of booking officers numerous times to ask to arrange for bond and for his heart medicine, but he was ignored by the officers who sat just feet away from the cell.

Agrawal said in his lawsuit that he did not receive a mental health assessment until June 2, and it was conducted over the phone. That morning he was also allowed to call a bondsman so he could be released from jail. ”Stillwagon’s tortuous acts and omissions as described ... will continue to cause (Agrawal) to suffer fear, terror, nightmares, embarrassment, humiliation, damage to his professional reputation as a medical doctor .... emotional stress, mental anguish, a disruption of his normal everyday life activities, and a loss of the enjoyment and pleasures of life,“ the suit states.

The suit, which states Agrawal also suffered physically from being “slammed by Stillwagon onto the hood of his patrol car and onto the counter in the Washington County Detention Center,” asks for a judgment against the defendants for a total of $1.8 million in compensatory damages. The lawsuit had not been served on the city, county or Stillwagon as of Wednesday morning. Once it is served, the parties have 30 days to file a response.

Pfizer settles lawsuits tying sex and gambling addictions to dopamine meds

As reported by Fierce Pharma, from a report in the Financial Review

Pfizer ($PFE) is settling class-action litigation brought by patients who claimed the drugmaker did not adequately warn them of possible side effects of drugs they were taking to treat their Parkinson's disease or restless leg syndrome. While this kind of litigation is routine, the side effects were not. Instead patients said the drugs created addictions they didn't previously have, causing them to gamble away their life savings, or become obsessed with shopping or sex.

The confidential settlement with 172 patients, said to be for millions of dollars, was approved by a judge in federal court in Australia, the Financial Review reports, although payments were delayed until they are assessed by an independent review. Pfizer had agreed to the settlement late last year, ahead of a trial of the cases brought by people who took Pfizer's Cabaser and Dostinex between 1996 and 2010 to treat tremors associated with Parkinson's disease or RLS.

"Pfizer entered into settlement resolution discussions in order to avoid the cost of litigating this claim and to avoid a lengthy trial," a Pfizer spokesman told the publication. "Pfizer remains willing to litigate this matter in court if necessary."

The drugs work by providing dopamine agonists that imitate the effects of dopamine in the brain, something Parkinson's patients lack. A study published last year in JAMA Internal Medicine found that the "psychiatric side effects" of uncontrollable urges were not as rare as first believed. It found that they occurred in at least 10% of patients, but said they probably were underreported because patients were ashamed to talk about what they had done.

The authors of the study said the potential was large enough, greater than suicide risks of antidepressants for example, that the FDA should require a "black box" warning on the labels on dopamine agonists, a class that includes Requip from GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK), UCB's Neupro and Mirapex from Boehringer Ingelheim. The German company was sued by a New York man some years back who said that taking the drug had turned him into a "pathological gambler," who ruined him as he gambled away $3 million.

According to the Financial Review Eli Lilly and Aspen Pharmacare also settled with 32 patients in 2013 in similar case involving the drug Permax.

Florida Psychiatrist Mark Agresti sued over treatment of West Palm Beach woman who killed daughter and herself

Here is the Local TV WPBF News Reports



with this related report

Bradley Brooks was so concerned about his 10-year-old-daughter Alexandra, on Sept. 12, 2013, he asked the police to check the home she shared with her mother Pamela Brooks. Police went to the home located at 139 Gregory Place and found Alexandra and Pamela inside, both stabbed to death. Pamela Brooks was found with 130 self-inflicted stab wounds. Her daughter was found with 30 stab wounds. Police ruled the case a murder-suicide.

The girl's father is now suing a psychiatrist and a substance abuse counselor who were treating Pamela Brooks.

According to the lawsuit, Pamela Brooks had a lifetime of alcohol abuse. Beginning in 1999 her alcohol abuse began causing problems in her life. The lawsuit also states, Bradley Brooks filed an emergency request for custody of their daughter back in May of 2013, just weeks after her mother was arrested for DUI. The lawsuit states, Pamela Brooks was ordered to a comprehensive psychological evaluation and was seen several times by the doctor. Her next scheduled appointment was for Sept. 13, 2013. She and her daughter were found dead inside their home Sept. 12, 2013.

According to the lawsuit filed last week, Brooks doctor is accused of "Failing to clearly communicate that Pamela Brooks was at risk of inflicting harm to herself or to others," and "Failing to refer Pamela Brooks to a physician trained in the management of patients suffering from severe depression," the suit states.

Both the doctor and counselor are accused of negligence.

And as reported in the Palm Beach Post

A psychiatrist and a substance abuse counselor who were treating a West Palm Beach woman who killed herself and her 10-year-old daughter in September 2013 have been sued in connection with the deaths that stunned the community. In the lawsuit filed last week in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, family members of Pamela and Alexandra Brooks blame Dr. Mark Agresti and counselor David Dashev for the murder-suicide.

The two “knew or should have known that Pamela Brooks was at risk of inflicting harm to herself, or to others,” according to the lawsuit filed by attorney Glenn Crickenberger, who works for the Stuart law firm of famed lawyer Willie Gary. “However, (they) failed to refer Pamela Brooks to a physician trained in the management of patients suffering from severe depression.”

Brooks, 48, was found dead in the living room of her Gregory Place home with 130 self-inflicted stab wounds. The body of her daughter was found in the kitchen with 30 stab wounds, the suit says. The deaths so shocked the community that the city’s then police chief took the unusual step of calling a press conference to announce they had been ruled a murder-suicide. The grisly scene was discovered by Brooks’ ex-husband, Bradley, who broke into the home because he was concerned about his daughter, a King’s Academy student.

Dashev, former chief operations officer of the Mental Health Pavilion at what is now West Palm Hospital, declined comment on the suit. Agresti couldn’t be reached.

Pamela Brooks had been ordered to seek treatment from Agresti and Dashev by Circuit Judge Thomas Barkdull in May 2013 after Bradley Brooks filed an emergency request for custody of the couple’s daughter. The request came weeks after Pamela Brooks was arrested for driving under the influence.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Bradley Brooks and his ex-wife’s parents, Martin and Evelyn Hewson, details Pamela Brooks long struggle with alcohol abuse. It also indicates she initially responded to treatment by Agresti and Dashev. Treated daily with Antabuse, a drug designed to reduce cravings for alcohol, medical records in June and July 2013 showed she was “compliant and that her spirits were good,” the lawsuit says.

In August, the tenor of the notes changed. They indicate she had resumed drinking. Questions were raised about whether she needed residential care. “There was a discussion with Ms. Brooks regarding depression and the presence of suicidal ideation,” the suit says.

From Aug. 16 to Sept. 6, 2013, she was seen about 10 times by Agresti and Dashev. “During several of these visits Pamela described her overall condition as being characterized by anxiety and tension,” the suit states. “She described herself as feeling overwhelmed, angry and upset stemming from her DUI and all the changes in her life that the DUI has caused.” A day before her next appointment, she killed herself and her daughter.

The suit accuses Agresti and Dashev of negligence. It seeks an unspecified amount in damages.

Long Island woman says psych ward doctors believed she was delusional for insisting Obama follows her on Twitter

From the New York Daily News

A Long Island woman’s insistence that President Obama follows her on Twitter made doctors at the Harlem Hospital psych ward think she was delusional and suffering from bipolar disorder — but she was actually telling the truth, a lawsuit charges. Kam Brock’s frightening eight-day “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” ordeal at the mental facility included forced injections of powerful sedatives and demands she down doses of lithium, medical records obtained through her suit filed in Manhattan Federal Court show. They also indicate that doctors didn’t believe the leader of the free world followed her on Twitter — though @BarackObama follows over 640,000 accounts, including hers. They were also skeptical she worked at a bank, records show.

“I told (the doctor) Obama follows me on Twitter to show her the type of person I am. I’m a good person, a positive person. Obama follows positive people!” Brock, whose Twitter handle is @AkilahBrock, said.

A “master treatment plan” from Harlem Hospital backs up the Astoria Bank worker’s story.

“Objective: Patient will verbalize the importance of education for employment and will state that Obama is not following her on Twitter,” the document reads.

It also notes “patient’s weaknesses: inability to test reality, unemployment.”

Adding insult to insanity, the hospital hit Brock with a bill of $13,637.10, she charges in her suit seeking unspecified damages.

The bizarre experience began Sept. 12, when the NYPD seized her prized 2003 BMW 325Ci in Harlem because they suspected she was high on weed, her attorney, Michael Lamonsoff, said. Cops found no marijuana but confiscated her ride anyway, he said. The NYPD declined to comment.

The following day, Brock walked into the NYPD’s Public Service Area 6 stationhouse in Harlem to retrieve her car, her suit charges. Brock — an eccentric 32-year-old born in Jamaica with dreams of making it big in the entertainment business — admitted in an interview she was “emotional,” but insisted she in no way is an “emotionally disturbed person.” Nevertheless, cops cuffed her and put her in an ambulance bound for the hospital, her suit charges.

“Next thing you know, the police held onto me, the doctor stuck me with a needle and I was knocked out,” Brock said, tearing up. “I woke up to them taking off my underwear and then went out again. I woke up the next day in a hospital robe.”

Lamonsoff said race may have been a factor in the way Brock was treated. “How would you act if you were being told you were crazy?” he said. For eight days, she attended group therapy, endured injections of sedatives, and took lorazepam and lithium, medical records show, according to Lamonsoff.

When she was finally let go, the doctors didn’t tell her why she was being allowed to leave, Brock said. Harlem Hospital declined to comment. The city Law Department said the suit would be reviewed.

How the American opiate epidemic was started by one pharmaceutical company

An extended article investigating a corrupt pharmaceutical company Here are some snippets. Well

The state of Kentucky may finally get its deliverance. After more than seven years of battling the evasive legal tactics of Purdue Pharma, 2015 may be the year that Kentucky and its attorney general, Jack Conway, are able to move forward with a civil lawsuit alleging that the drugmaker misled doctors and patients about their blockbuster pain pill OxyContin, leading to a vicious addiction epidemic across large swaths of the state.

A pernicious distinction of the first decade of the 21st century was the rise in painkiller abuse, which ultimately led to a catastrophic increase in addicts, fatal overdoses, and blighted communities. But the story of the painkiller epidemic can really be reduced to the story of one powerful, highly addictive drug and its small but ruthlessly enterprising manufacturer.

On December 12, 1995, the Food and Drug Administration approved the opioid analgesic OxyContin. It hit the market in 1996. In its first year, OxyContin accounted for $45 million in sales for its manufacturer, Stamford, Connecticut-based pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma. By 2000 that number would balloon to $1.1 billion, an increase of well over 2,000 percent in a span of just four years. Ten years later, the profits would inflate still further, to $3.1 billion. By then the potent opioid accounted for about 30 percent of the painkiller market. What's more, Purdue Pharma's patent for the original OxyContin formula didn't expire until 2013. This meant that a single private, family-owned pharmaceutical company with non-descript headquarters in the Northeast controlled nearly a third of the entire United States market for pain pills.

[...]

Starting in 1996, Purdue Pharma expanded its sales department to coincide with the debut of its new drug. According to an article published in The American Journal of Public Health, “The Promotion and Marketing of OxyContin: Commercial Triumph, Public Health Tragedy," Purdue increased its number of sales representatives from 318 in 1996 to 671 in 2000. By 2001, when OxyContin was hitting its stride, these sales reps received annual bonuses averaging over $70,000, with some bonuses nearing a quarter of a million dollars. In that year Purdue Pharma spent $200 million marketing its golden goose. Pouring money into marketing is not uncommon for Big Pharma, but proportionate to the size of the company, Purdue’s OxyContin push was substantial.

[...]

The state of Kentucky's lawsuit against Purdue Pharma is not the first legal trouble the company has run into. In 2007, in United States of America v. The Purdue Frederick Company, Inc., Purdue and its top executives pleaded guilty to charges that it misled doctors and patients about the addictive properties of OxyContin and misbranded the product as "abuse resistant." Prosecutors found a "corporate culture that allowed this product to be misbranded with the intent to defraud and mislead." Purdue Pharma paid $600 million in fines, among the largest settlements in U.S. history for a pharmaceutical company.

[...]

Kentucky is filing a total of 12 claims against the company, including false advertising, Medicaid fraud, unjust enrichment, and punitive damages. In total the suit could cost Purdue Pharma $1 billion (which is just one-third of its annual revenues from OxyContin).

No state has been more devastated by the nationwide opiate problem than Kentucky. Much of the eastern part of the state and the Appalachians has watched as men, women, and teenagers fell victim to the potent pain pills. There were several different gateways — back injuries, operations, parents' medicine cabinets — but all of them led to an implacable addiction that rivals that of the hardest street drugs. And that’s the rub. Because there was simply so much OxyContin available for over a decade, it trickled down from pharmacies and hospitals and became a street drug, coveted by teens and fiends and sold by dealers at a premium (prices often shot up well over $1 a milligram, pricing the popular 80mg tablets at over $100 for a single pill).

Whatever the gray areas on OxyContin's many paths to perdition, the statistics on the first decade of this century bear out a staggering epidemic. From 1999 to 2010, the sale of prescription painkillers to pharmacies and doctors' offices quadrupled. In the exact same time span, the number of overdose deaths from prescription painkillers also quadrupled, rising to almost 17,000.

To call this a coincidence would be analogous to declaring no connection between loosening enforcement on drunk driving laws and observing a sudden increase in deaths caused by drunk driving. It goes almost without saying that these figures dovetail seamlessly with the release of OxyContin and Purdue's marketing timeline, which hit hardest in the early 2000s.

Prashant Tiwari's family files $12.5M lawsuit after suicide in Brampton, Ontario hospital

As reported by the CBC

Many more details at the link

Members of a Brampton, Ont., family have launched a $12.5-million lawsuit after a 20-year-old man was found dead in the bathroom of the hospital where he was supposed to be on suicide watch.

Prashant Tiwari committed suicide last June at Brampton Civic Hospital while under treatment, the lawsuit alleges, adding he had been admitted to the psychiatric ward after he had started cutting himself.

Rakesh Tiwari alleges his son was left unattended in a hospital bathroom for three hours. During that time, the 20-year-old used his hospital gown and a chair to hang himself, his father said.

"He volunteered himself to the hospital. He knew he had some problem, and he was fighting and he needed help," said Rakesh Tiwari.

"He was not to die."

Tiwari believes staff were supposed to check on his son every 15 minutes.

"My son should not have been unattended," he said.

A lengthy statement of claim — filed at Brampton's Superior Court of Justice on Wednesday — names the hospital and numerous employees as defendants, and lays out a timeline of what happened to Prashant Tiwari in the hospital.

[...]

After his death, the statement of claim alleges, 12 people accessed Prashant’s medical records without proper authorization for unknown reasons.

[...]

Judge: State of Alaska can't hold foster kids at mental hospital for indefinite stretches

From a report in the Alaska Dispatch News

More details at the link

Facing allegations that it improperly warehoused foster children at North Star psychiatric hospital in Anchorage, the Alaska Office of Children’s Services has been ordered by a state Superior Court judge not to keep children at the facility for indefinite periods of time.

The order is part of a preliminary injunction issued by Superior Court Judge Erin Marston that said a minor, admitted to the acute psychiatric hospital during an emergency, cannot remain there longer than 30 days without court approval.

But that length of time may change. As a next step, the judge has asked parties in the case to offer recommendations on the appropriate period of time a minor should be kept at the hospital before a court can weigh in.

The case was brought a year ago by the Southwest Alaska tribal governments of Hooper Bay and Kongiganak on behalf of the tribes’ children.

Alaska Legal Services, representing the tribes, argued that the state was improperly placing and holding children in the hospital. It provided examples of three Alaska Native teenage girls from two foster families who had been held at the hospital for at least four weeks without a judge’s approval, though their admission was based on questionable evidence.

One of the girls, a teenager referenced as C.A. for her initials, was held at the hospital for about a month, though a hearing judge later found there was no evidence supporting the decision to send her there, wrote Marston.

“OCS decided to send C.A. to North Star, although the reason for this decision is unclear,” Marston wrote.

Marston’s Feb. 12 preliminary order said that indefinite stays by children at North Star may violate U.S. constitutional rights and lead to “irreparable harm.”

“Continuing treatment of foster children without a judicial hearing raises the question of a violation of the fundamental right to due process,” he wrote.

The hospital provides a secure, locked facility where 24-hour services are given under the care of psychiatrists to children with severe emotional and behavioral disorders, he wrote.

But long, unnecessary placement at a mental hospital is not good for adolescents, said Jim Davis, the attorney arguing the case for Alaska Legal Services.

“This is not to say North Star is ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,’ but a mental hospital is not a good place for kids” with typical teenage behaviors, said Davis. “It can disempower and otherwise undermine a kid’s sense of self if they don’t really have a mental illness requiring them to be there.”

North Star Behavioral Health System was a defendant in the case along with Christy Lawton, OCS director. Like OCS, North Star must change its practices because of the preliminary order, Davis said.

Officials representing and working for North Star did not return phone calls seeking comments.

Though the case is not settled, the judge’s preliminary order is in part a victory for the tribal governments.

[...]

The state’s policy was insufficient because it proposed no timeline, leaving that up to the scheduling of the courts, Davis said. Getting a hearing can take far too long, sometimes leaving a child in the mental hospital long after they should have been released, said Davis.

The girl had caused alarm after it was believed she had overdosed on antidepressants, leading to a trip to the hospital emergency room in the hub city of Bethel. There, the girl showed no physical signs of overdosing and the girl’s foster mother found the bottle of pills the next day.

[...]

D.S. was held for 38 days, while J.S. was held for 47 days, Davis said. They were released after a Superior Court judge said they shouldn’t be there, he said.

“The process isn’t working when it takes weeks and weeks to have a hearing,” Davis said.

In his order, the judge wants the parties by March 12 to recommend the appropriate length of time to hold minors before a court can weigh in.

Davis said he will argue that minors, just like adults, should not be involuntarily held longer than 72 hours without a court’s input. That is more than enough time to determine whether a minor is being improperly held at the hospital, he said.

Bookman, of the OCS, said a child admitted by a guardian is in a situation different from that of an involuntarily admitted adult, so 72 hours may not be appropriate. He said he would “talk to OCS about it, do some research and come up with a position.”

Lawsuit describes string of sex assaults at Seattle Children's Hospital - Hospital staff failed to help girl abused in psychiatric ward

From a report in Seattle PI

Much more information at the link

A former patient at Seattle Children’s Hospital has sued, claiming hospital staff failed to notice as she was repeatedly, sexually assaulted by another patient.

Attorneys for the young woman claim at least three other children have been sexually abused at the Laurelhurst neighborhood facility in recent years. Despite assurances of reform from hospital managers, they contend too little is being done to protect children there.

Writing the court, attorneys Steve Berman and Marty McLean said their client was just one of an unknown number of children abused while locked in Children’s inpatient psychiatric unit.

“Sadly, (she) is not the first child-patient who was sexually victimized while admitted,” Berman said in the lawsuit, which was filed earlier this week. “Publically available records confirm that (she) was at least the fourth patient in a five-year span to have been sexually victimized while under (Children’s) care and custody.”

Berman, a nationally prominent attorney specializing in class-action lawsuits, went on to say he believes “there are more children who have been victimized, as well.”

A spokeswoman for Seattle Children’s declined to comment on the lawsuit. Attorneys for the University of Washington-affiliated nonprofit have not yet responded to the allegations in court.

Big Pharma backed the Affordable Care Act, but it has bankrolled a think tank mounting the legal assault on the law

An investigative report: Big Pharma backed the Affordable Care Act, but it has bankrolled a think tank mounting the legal assault on the law, for more profits

Worth the read

Here are a couple of snippets

During the contentious battle to pass the Affordable Care Act, the pharmaceutical industry was a crucial partner of President Barack Obama. Big Pharma sank $150 million into an ad blitz promoting the Obamacare bill and spent millions lobbying for its passage. Backing health care reform was a no-brainer for the drug manufacturers; they stood to reap billions in revenues as a result of expanded health care coverage. Yet all of this makes one of Big Pharma's alliances highly curious: It has bankrolled the libertarian think tank trying to demolish Obamacare.

[...]

This was the deal Big Pharma cut during the legislative battle over Obamacare: The pharmaceutical companies agreed to support the law and accept about $80 billion in cost-cutting measures over the next decade, and the White House granted the industry lucrative concessions to protect its profit margins. These industry-favoring measures include provisions preventing the government from negotiating lower drug prices for Medicare and Medicaid and blocking Americans from importing cheaper prescription drugs from abroad. Those concessions were costly to taxpayers and consumers, but they were part of the grand bargain hammered out between the White House and Big Pharma. This accord ensured the industry would use its formidable lobbying clout to pass Obamacare—not destroy it.

A proposed settlement in the class action lawsuit vs psychiatric facilities SLS Residential Inc., SLS Health, Inc., SLS Wellness, Inc., Supervised Lifestyles, Inc. in the state of New York

As seen in this PDF from the website of Sussman & Watkins

An important point is that it is highly recommended that any claims be submitted by the end of next week, the 13th of February 2015

NOTICE OF CLASS ACTION SETTLEMENT (Romano, et al. v. SLS Residential, Inc., et al.; No. 07cv2034 (MHD))

A proposed settlement has been reached between the plaintiff class and the SLS defendants in this class action lawsuit.

You are receiving this notice and the attached Claims Form because you were previously identified as a member of the class. The terms of the proposed settlement are as follows:

• A total Settlement Amount of $3,000,000 (Three Million Dollars) distributed as follows:

• Payment of a total of $1,929,000 to 269 class members. Individual awards are based on length of stay at SLS during the class period (July 1, 2004 - May 31, 2006).
• Payment of $108,000 in service awards to class member deponents;
• Payment of $150,000 service/incentive award to the class representative;
• Payment of $740,000 in attorneys' fees to Sussman & Watkins;
• Payment of $58,500 to Sussman & Watkins for out-of-pocket costs;
• Reserve fund of $14,500.

There are 269 class members. Individual settlement awards range from $500 to $17,000. The amount you receive is based on the length of time you were at SLS client during the class period of July 2004-May 2006. In addition, more weight has been given for periods in which class members resided in the Multicare houses or PAT townhouses than for time spent in the SDL apartments or Case Management. A copy of the Settlement Agreement and the plaintiffs' legal brief requesting that the Court approve the Settlement is available at the website of Sussman & Watkins, which is www.sussmanwatkinslaw.com
To the extent that any of the 269 class members exclude themselves from this settlement or do not submit claims forms after the final deadline, their unclaimed settlement awards will be aggregated and distributed to the remaining class members. That means that you may receive a second payment several months after the first, but the size of that payment will not be able to be determined until after the final deadline for submitting claims forms.

For instructions on submitting a claim, or if you want to object to, or exclude yourself from, this proposed settlement, [...] (or) For all questions about the Settlement, you may contact Class Counsel at:

Sussman & Watkins
PO Box 1005
1 Railroad Ave.
Goshen, NY 10924
(845) 294-3991
Michael Sussman: sussmanl@frontiernet.net
Christopher Watkins: chris_sussmanl@frontiernet.net

Once you have completed the Claims Form, mail it back to Sussman & Watkins. The initial deadline to mail back your Claims Form is February 13, 2015. There will be a second chance for Class Members to submit Claims Forms after the Court gives final approval of the settlement, but you should get your Claims Form in now to avoid any problems regarding your claim. If you lose or misplace your Claims Form, you should contact Sussman & Watkins for a new one.

Timing of Settlement Payments: The settlement funds will be distributed within thirty days or so after the Court has given its final approval of the settlement. Currently, the Fairness Hearing for the judge to make that determination is scheduled for February 24, 2015 at 10:00 a.m., but it may be adjourned or continued. You can check the website of Sussman & Watkins (www.sussmanwatkinslaw.com) for updates regarding the status of the settlement, including notification of when the judge has given final approval of the settlement and the anticipated date settlement awards will be mailed to class members who submitted Claims Forms

As seen here (PDF) New York State had ordered Putnam mental-health company SLS to giveup permits to operate

The state has ordered a private Putnam County-based mental-health provider that treats teens and young adults to surrender its operating certificates after the mental-health commissioner upheld charges that the for-profit facility violated patients' rights and ignored state regulations.

More information here on the fallout from the state shutdown

A Putnam County-based, for-profit mental health provider that treats teens and young adults lost its latest legal battle when an appellate court upheld the state mental health commissioner's decision to revoke its operating certificates because it violated patients' rights and ignored state regulations.

The state OMH is already moving toward shutting down the 20-year-old company.

"We are gratified by the decision of the Appellate Division, Second Department, which unanimously upheld the (OMH) commissioner's final determination revoking all three operating certificates," Leesa Rademacher said in a statement. "OMH will immediately begin working cooperatively with SLS to (ensure) that all patients currently being served by the programs will be transitioned to appropriate care settings."

[...]

Pleasantville resident Glen Feinberg, an attorney who has alleged his son received abusive treatment while an SLS patient, said he does not think it can successfully appeal the latest ruling.

"The courts are not likely to overturn the unanimous ruling upholding OMH's determination that SLS lacks the character and competence to operate a licensed facility in New York state," Feinberg wrote in an email Tuesday.

Lawsuit against Janssen alleges Risperdal caused gynecomastia

As reported by Healio Psychiatric Annals

Four men have filed separate personal injury lawsuits alleging that an antipsychotic medication was both defective and dangerous following the plaintiffs’ development of gynecomastia, according to a press release.

The complaints stem from patients living in Connecticut, Florida, Maryland and Ohio who claimed the administration of risperidone (Risperdal, Janssen Pharmaceuticals) at a young age led to gynecomastia, according to the release issued by Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP. The litigation was filed in state court in Pennsylvania and also named Johnson & Johnson, parent company to Janssen, as a defendant.

“The bodies of these young men have been permanently mutated by Risperdal,” attorney Wendy R. Fleishman, said in the release. “In a young man who is already isolated by his challenges caused by mental issues, the growth of women’s breasts on his body in adolescent and teenage years is absolutely devastating.

“As alleged in the complaint, Janssen knew Risperdal stimulated male breast development and failed to adequately warn physicians, parents, and the adolescents prescribed Risperdal of this side effect. So when the moms and dads gave their consent to add this prescription for their sons, they knew nothing about the potential horrible harm it could cause.”

Healio Psychiatry contacted Janssen for commentary, but has not received a reply. Check back soon for any further updates

Judge allows portion of lawsuit filed by man locked up for 19 years

From a Report in the Journal Star

A federal judge ruled last week that parts, but not all, of a Florida man's lawsuit can go forward against his former doctors at the Lincoln Regional Center, where he was locked up for more than 19 years on a misdiagnosis.

For years, John Montin's doctors said his denials that he was mentally ill were evidence that he was.

But in 2013, his treatment team agreed with him. It was a medication-induced psychosis that led to an incident in Hayes County and his commitment at the Regional Center, the team said, and a judge let him out.

In July, Montin sued his former doctors, alleging:

• that his former doctors and treatment team members had deprived him of his rights, a so-called 1983 civil rights claim, and
• that they hadn't met the standard of care, a state medical malpractice claim.

He is seeking more than $22 million in damages for incorrectly being labeled mentally ill and for unnecessarily being held and subjected to treatments he didn't need. He also is seeking $760,000 in lost wages and $10 million in punitive damages.

In a decision that was neither all good nor all bad for either side, Senior U.S. District Judge Lyle Strom refused to dismiss Montin's case, a move the doctors had sought. But the judge also refused to let Montin go forward on a number of theories, including unnecessary bodily restraint.

While the doctors' annual reports might have kept Montin in the locked hospital for more than 19 years, they hadn't shackled him to his bed or otherwise physically restrained him there.

Montin also cannot go forward on a theory that his doctors hadn't made truthful disclosures in their reports. In other words, Montin had alleged that at some point the doctors had to know his diagnosis was wrong.

But Strom did allow Montin to go forward on a theory alleging that the doctors retaliated against him because he kept filing lawsuits.

And the judge refused to throw out the case on an argument by the Nebraska Attorney General's office, which represents most of the defendants, that the state employees couldn't be sued because they were acting essentially as part of the judicial process.

"The court disagrees," Strom wrote in the order.

Much much more at the link

The Iowa Court of Appeals has ruled that the state is not liable in a lawsuit filed by a former University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics patient who had a sexual relationship with a psychiatrist.

As reported by the Iowa City Press Citizen

Given the regulations that were in place, it looks like the shrink is the only one responsible for his reprehensible conduct. More details at the link

The Iowa Court of Appeals has ruled that the state is not liable in a lawsuit filed by a former University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics patient who had a sexual relationship with a psychiatrist.

In a ruling issued Wednesday, the appeals court reversed a previous decision by a Johnson County District Court judge denying the state's motion for summary judgment.

The civil suit stems from a 2010 relationship between Dr. Sergio Paradiso, then a psychiatrist at UIHC, and Sonni Giudicessi, who had been treated by Paradiso and others at the hospital in 2008 and 2009.

According to court records, the two secretly engaged in a sexual relationship from March to June 2010 — four months after Giudicessi had been discharged for treatment. Giudicessi's Des Moines-based psychiatrist reported the relationship to UIHC in July of that year, and Paradiso voluntarily surrendered his medical license in 2012 after the Iowa Board of Medicine found he violated the laws of medical practice.

Giudicessi sued Paradiso in July 2011 for medical negligence, battery, breach of contract and intentional infliction of emotional distress, among other charges. She also sued the hospital for breach of contract and negligent hiring.

The appeals court ruled this week that there is no evidence that Paridiso represented to Giudicessi that their sexual relationship was a continuation of their previous counseling relationship.

"Paradiso pursued the relationship for his own personal interest and not the interests of UIHC," Judge Thomas Bower wrote in the court's decision. "... Paradiso's acts were 'so far removed' from his employment duties the State could not be held liable."

Paradiso worked in the psychiatry department at UIHC as a staff doctor from 1997 through his departure in July 2010. According to the ruling, UIHC resident doctors are trained that it is inappropriate to have sexual relationships with patients.

In the ruling, Bower noted that the department's head of psychiatry has distributed a list of "commandments" to residents and fellows, with the first commandment being: "Though shalt not sleep with any UI Psychiatry Hospital patient unless it be thy spouse."

The American Psychiatric Association Code of Ethics prohibits relations between current and former patients, and UIHC policies prohibit sexual harassment, Bower wrote.

[...]

Life Care Of Greeneville, NC Named In Wrongful Death Lawsuit

As reported in the Greenville Sun

Many more Details are available at the link

A wrongful death civil lawsuit has been filed against a Greeneville nursing home and several other defendants alleging wrongdoing in the care the facility gave an elderly dementia patient.

In the complaint, filed Dec. 2, 2014, in Greene County Circuit Court, the plaintiff, Robin Tweed Keller, of Virginia, alleges that medical battery and negligence by Life Care Center of Greeneville resulted in the suffering and eventual death of her father, Bobby Glenn Tweed, on Nov. 19, 2013, at the age of 79.

The suit identifies Keller as Tweed's only daughter and his next-of-kin -- and the person he had designated his Tennessee Healthcare Durable Power-of-Attorney in September 2009.

She is also identified as the court-appointed representative of his estate.

Defendants named in the lawsuit are:

• Life Care Center of Greeneville, 725 Crum St.;
• Life Care Centers of America Inc., based in Cleveland, Tenn., the parent company of Life Care Center of Greeneville and more than 100 other similar centers in the nation;
• Wayne E. Tasker & Associates Inc., of Morristown, doing business as Green Tasker & Associates Inc., and Tasker Green & Associates Inc., a firm which Keller believes provides services to Life Care Centers in connection with the mental health of patients;
• Dr. William C. Diebold, a medical doctor and board-certified psychiatrist with Takoma Regional Hospital's Center for Outpatient Behavioral Health and Senior Care, who, the lawsuit states, treated Tweed at one point during the last months of his life;
• Stephen L. Haile, an advanced-practice registered nurse who the plaintiff believes to be an officer or employee of the Tasker firm; and
• Dr. Kenneth Nickle, a physician with Summit Medical Group, who, the lawsuit states, served as medical director of Life Care Center of Greeneville during the last three months of Tweed's life and, in that capacity, treated Tweed for two-and-a-half to three months.

Also cited as a defendant is an unnamed female who, the complaint states, was employed at Life Care Center of Greeneville. The lawsuit alleges that she was involved in the care and treatment of Tweed and administered certain "atypical anti-psychotic drugs" without obtaining the legally-required informed consent from Keller.

The Greeneville Sun has made attempts to seek comment from each defendant listed in the complaint. Each defendant contacted has declined comment on the pending case at this time.

WHAT LAWSUIT CLAIMS

The suit alleges that, for a few days in August 2013 at Takoma Regional Hospital and then continuing until mid-October 2013 at Life Care Center of Greeneville, Tweed was administered powerful drugs that were inappropriate for his medical condition: dementia and Alzheimer's disease (but not mental illness).

The drugs mentioned in the lawsuit -- Seroquel, Geodon and Depakote -- are described in the suit as "extremely powerful psychotropic medications" classified as "atypical anti-psychotic drugs."

Seroquel and Geodon, the suit alleges, "and other atypical anti-psychotic drugs" have been shown to increase death in elderly patients who are suffering from dementia.

Because of that increased risk of death, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has required the manufacturers of Seroquel and Geodon to include "black box" warnings about the danger of using those drugs with elderly patients who are suffering from dementia, the suit alleges.

The suit describes Depakote as "an anti-epileptic drug, which is used to treat a variety of epilepsy seizure types as well as acute manic symptoms in patients with bipolar disorder."

But, the suit continues, "It has not been approved by the FDA for use with Alzheimer's disease or dementia."

Many more Details are available at the link

South Carolina pays $1.2 million in lawsuit over mentally ill inmate who died

From this Report from channel WLXT 19

much more information and details at the link

The state has paid $1.2 million to the estate of an inmate with mental retardation who died in 2008 after being kept naked for 11 days in solitary confinement and developing hypothermia.

Records from the state Insurance Reserve Fund also show the state paid an additional $199,000 to its private lawyers in the case, which was cited last year by former state Circuit Judge Michael Baxley in his landmark, 45-page order finding the state Department of Corrections had violated the rights of inmates with severe mental illness.

The estate of Jerome Laudman sued individual officers in the case in federal court and filed suit against the prison system in state court. Both cases were settled last year, records show, with the federal suit being dismissed and the state agreeing to pay $1.2 million in the state case.

"We settled the case for 1.2 million," Corrections Director Bryan Stirling said. "Corrections continues to make significant changes and improvements for the safety and security of officers and staff, inmates and the community."

Sen. Mike Fair of Greenville, chairman of the Senate Corrections and Penology Committee, said of the settlement that "$1.2 million doesn't bring this man back to life. ... (But) hopefully the family can have closure on that."

Scott Evans, a lawyer for the Laudman estate, said the family of Laudman feels the settlement was a fair one. He said the maximum amount that can be paid in a state medical negligence claim in South Carolina is $1.2 million. He said $600,000 is the limit for a wrongful death claim and $300,000 for other types of claims.

[...]

When an investigator looked at the videotape of the transfer of Laudman, he noted that it contained only a few minutes of footage before it went blank, according to the internal report.

The cell was bare, with a concrete pad for sleeping and no blanket, according to the suit. The lawsuit alleges that the entire area was cold and there were problems with the heating system.

Laudman was stripped of all "basic necessities," according to the lawsuit, including mattress, sheets, socks, shoes, underwear and uniform." He also wasn't provided access to his medication while in the Supermax cell, according to the suit.

Four days after Laudman was placed in his new cell, an officer noticed that he was sitting and stooped over "like he was real weak or sick," according to the internal investigative report.

The officer also noted that food trays were piled up near the door, Laudman was naked and the room was bare. The officer didn't report what he saw, according to the report, because when he brought up issues in the past he was told to "leave it alone."

[...]

Investor files Lawsuit against Alcobra Ltd (NASDAQ:ADHD) over alleged Misleading Statements regarding supposed success of ADHD drug

As reported in the WallStreet Scope

An investor, who purchased shares of Alcobra Ltd (NASDAQ:ADHD), filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York over alleged violations of Federal Securities Laws by Alcobra Ltd in connection with certain allegedly false and misleading statements made between March 28, 2014 and November 14, 2014.

Investors who purchased a significant amount of shares of Alcobra Ltd (NASDAQ:ADHD) between March 28, 2014 and November 14, 2014, have certain options and for certain investors are short and strict deadlines running. Deadline: January 19, 2014. NASDAQ:ADHD investors should contact the Shareholders Foundation at mail@shareholdersfoundation.com or call +1(858) 779 – 1554.

According to the complaint the plaintiff alleges on behalf of purchasers of Alcobra Ltd (NASDAQ:ADHD) common shares between March 28, 2014 and November 14, 2014, that the defendants violated Federal Securities Laws.

More specifically, the plaintiff claims that defendants allegedly misrepresented and/or failed to disclose between March 28, 2014 and November 14, 2014 that its drug candidate Metadoxine Extended Release (“MDX”) did not show a statistical benefit over placebo until patients were removed from the Company’s analysis of the Phase III study, that Alcobra Ltd was presenting it analyses inconsistently, including post hoc analysis outside the original protocols, and that as a result of the foregoing, defendants’ statements about Alcobra’s business, operations and prospects, including statements about the clinical success of MDX, were false and misleading and or lacked a reasonable basis.

On October 6, 2014, Alcobra Ltd announced topline results from its Phase III study of MDX in Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (“ADHD”), and declared that MDX demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in ADHD symptoms. Alcobra Ltd further stated that after removing four patients with extreme placebo responses did MDX demonstrate statistical significance in improving patient symptoms.

The same day an analyst report was published entitled, “Alcobra ADHD Drug Fails Key Study except When Patients Removed From Analysis”.

Then on October 23, 2014, Alcobra Ltd announced the presentation of new data from a Phase III study of MDX in adults with ADHD at the 61st annual meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Alcobra Ltd also said that “while a complete ITT analysis by ADHD subtypes is still ongoing and was not presented at AACAP, the magnitude of symptom improvement appears to be similar in all subtypes, and the Predominantly-Inattentive ADHD (PI-ADHD) subtype alone did not produce a statistically significant outcome.”

Then, on November 17, 2014, Alcobra Ltd announced that it plans to meet with the FDA and launch a second adult Phase III study in 2015. According to Alcobra Ltd, it is “currently evaluating changes to the design and monitoring of the second trial to control the unusually high placebo response and wide response variability observed in the first Phase III study.” Shares of Alcobra Ltd (NASDAQ:ADHD) declined from $20.37 per share in late September 2014 to as low as $3.12 per share on November 18, 2014.

On January 5, 2015, NASDAQ:ADHD shares closed at $3.95 per share.

Those who purchased shares of Alcobra Ltd have certain options and should contact the Shareholders Foundation.

Contact:

Shareholders Foundation, Inc.
Michael Daniels
3111 Camino Del Rio North – Suite 423
92108 San Diego
Phone: +1-(858)-779-1554
Fax: +1-(858)-605-5739
mail@shareholdersfoundation.com

Related news item (more info at the link) Alcobra ADHD Drug Fails Key Study Except When Patients Removed From Analysis

Treatment with an experimental formulation of vitamin B6 known as MDX failed to improve the symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder compared to placebo, according to phase III study results announced by the developer of the drug, Alcobra (ADHD) , in a statement issued Monday.

However, when Alcobra removed four placebo patients from the analysis because of "extreme" responses, the MDX benefit in the adult ADHD was positive and statistically significant, the company said.

Investors weren't buying the spin. Alcobra shares are down 47% to $7.47 in Monday trading. What's wrong with just excluding some patients and claiming victory? Think about it this way: If baseball statisticians ignored all of Derek Jeter's outs, he batted 1.000 during his major league career.

Alcobra is doing the same thing with the MDX study analysis and it doesn't smell right, either.

[...]

Sides discussing settlement in lawsuit over busing of Nevada mental patients

From a Report in the Las Vegas Sun

be sure to check out the link for more information

Settlement talks have emerged in a class action lawsuit accusing Nevada of misusing public funds for busing mentally ill patients to California.

The talks are the latest in a 16-month legal battle between Nevada and the city and county of San Francisco. A successful negotiation would end one of three busing-related lawsuits facing Nevada. Any money would compensate California for harboring indigent patients who were discharged from Nevada psychiatric facilities and given one-way bus tickets with directors to seek help in California. The settlement also would aim to outline new rules for transporting patients across state lines.

California officials say the busing cost San Francisco at least $4 million to treat 21 patients from Nevada, according to legal documents in a San Francisco district court. The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office said it has the names of 500 patients who traveled to California from Las Vegas’ Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital between 2008 to 2013. It’s unclear how many of the 500 sought treatment once they arrived in California.

Officials from both states declined to comment on the details of the settlement negotiations — a standard practice during legal settlements.

“Those are confidential by mutual agreement,” said Matt Dorsey, spokesman in the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office.

Officials in Nevada’s Attorney General’s Office declined to comment for the story.

[...]

The news first broke after the Sacramento Bee newspaper uncovered that James Flavy Coy Brown, a Rawson-Neal patient, was sent on a 15-hour bus ride to Sacramento with no arrangements for care, housing or treatment. Hospital staff allegedly gave Brown a one-way bus ticket, peanut butter crackers and a three-day supply of medication to treat his schizophrenia, depression and anxiety. He had no family or friends in the area and was reportedly told to call 911 when he arrived.

[...]

They solved their budget problems by shipping the patients out of state.

Class Action Lawsuit Alleges that Surveillance of Mental Health Records is Unconstitutional

As reported by CourtHouse News.

Read the full report at the link

New York State is collecting confidential information on mental health patients to create a database of people it deems unfit to carry a firearm, according to a federal class action.

Lead plaintiff Donald Montgomery claims the state created a reporting system, as part of the New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act (Safe Act), that forces health professionals to transmit mental health patients' confidential information to a database shared by various government agencies, including law enforcement. It was part of the state's response to the rash of mass shootings over the past several years, in particular, that in Newtown, Conn.

Montgomery estimates that medical providers have reported such information on more than 60,000 people.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the lead defendant, signed the Safe Act into law in January 2013. Montgomery calls him "the principal architect of the Act."

New York Mental Hygiene Law 9.46 compels health professionals to report patients' data to the state if they feel the patients' actions are "likely to result in serious harm to self or others," the complaint states.

"The personal health information amassed includes, but is not limited to, any mental health diagnosis of a patient. The personal health information is shared by numerous agencies, including, but not limited to law enforcement and non-state agencies and offices," the lawsuit states.

"The state does not use a subpoena to obtain this confidential personal health information. The state has made the affirmative misrepresentation to medical professionals and others that transmitting this data is lawful."

Neither the state nor the treatment providers notify patients about the information sharing, the lawsuit states. It adds: "The Office of Mental Health underplays and misrepresents the seriousness of the personal health information being transmitted. The state intends its operations around MHL 9.46 to be conducted in a secretive and over-reaching manner."

The law defines mental health professionals as physicians, psychologists, registered nurses and social workers, according to the lawsuit.