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Category: Daily News

Uninsured Cal Fire Contractor Faces Felonies

Prosecutors in Monterey County have filed seven criminal counts against the small construction firm that employed Robert Reagan, the bulldozer operator killed last July while working the massive Soberanes Fire, the costliest wildfire in U.S. history.

Reagan’s death prompted investigations by Cal Fire and state workplace regulators, as well as the state agency that keeps tabs on California’s construction industry. The incident led to a wrongful death lawsuit against the state. And it brought attention to vulnerabilities faced by hundreds of private contractors that help battle California’s wildfires year after year.

The construction company, which is based in Coarsegold (Madera County), told the Contractors State License Board (CSLB) it had no employees and therefore did not need to provide worker’s compensation, board spokesman Rick Lopes said. This is not the first problem it has had with the Board. It has had its license suspended eight times by state regulators in the last four years.

In July 2012, CSLB investigators found that a crew employed by the company was not covered by workers’ compensation insurance. Czirban was then cited and fined $3,500. The company did not pay that fine right away, so its contractors license was suspended. The firm agreed to a payment plan with the agency to pay the fine – but it failed to make a payment and its license was suspended again.

The company’s license was then suspended several other times because its subcontractors and material suppliers were not paid, Lopes said.

KQED news reports that the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office is now charging Ian Czirban, the owner of Czirban Concrete Construction, with two counts of insurance fraud, two counts of filing a forged document, tax evasion, failure to collect taxes and failure to provide workers’ compensation insurance. Six of the seven charges are felonies.

Czirban has not been arrested. Prosecutors have sent him a “notice to appear” for arraignment in Monterey County Superior Court in Salinas on May 11.

Czirban’s lawyers have argued that he was not required to carry workers’ compensation insurance and that Cal Fire, not the company, was responsible for Reagan.

The charges come after state regulators moved to bar the company from working in California. The Contractors State License Board (CSLB) announced in March that the firm violated three state regulations in connection with its work on the fire.

Along with Czirban, a private company that hired a water tender driver seriously injured in the Soberanes Fire also did not have workers’ compensation insurance. Czirban Concrete is one of a number of companies Cal Fire has contracted with on the Soberanes Fire – a practice the agency employs on large fires.

“We have many companies that we contract with throughout the state and they can be utilized in any area,” Cal Fire spokeswoman Lynne Tolmachoff said. “The only time they are hired is for emergency incidents. We do not use these contracts for day-to-day projects.”

Applicants Must Show “Competency” to Mange MSA

Fernando Muniz Villalpando filed multiple claims for industrial injuries while employed as a laborer by two different employers, Martin Dusters and Doherty Brothers. He claimed injury to his lumbar spine at both employers and, additionally, to his cervical spine and bilateral shoulders at Doherty Brothers.

His three claims were settled by Compromise and Release. The parties’ settlement included an MSA Agreement, through which SCIF would fund applicant’s future medical treatment. The initial MSA proposal sent by Bridge Pointe to CMS provided that applicant would self-administer the MSA.

In an Addendum to the Compromise and Release Agreement, applicant agreed that Bridge Pointe would administer the MSA, with SCIF to establish the account with an initial payment to Bridge Pointe of $57,084.00, and $15,941.00 annually thereafter for 29 additional years. The Addendum also provided that SCIF would pay Bridge Pointe $3,555.00 as a fee to establish the MSA and for the initial year’s cost of administration. Thereafter, Bridge Pointe would receive an administrative fee of$1,800.00.

The agreement between applicant and SCIF does not contain any language pertaining to any future contingency involving the administration of his MSA by Bridge Pointe. There is no reference to a potential change of administration to another third party administrator, or to applicant as a self-administrator, in the event Bridge Pointe fails to provide services as a third party administrator of applicant’s MSA.

Applicant petitioned to replace Bridge Pointe and self-administer his MSA, based upon his claims that he has had problems obtaining medical services through the current arrangement. The WCJ denied his request to transfer the administration of his Medical Set-Aside Account from Bridge Pointe/NuQuest to himself, based upon the finding that applicant has not established that the MSA has been administered inappropriately.

Villalprando requested Reconsideration. The WCAB granted Reconsideration, rescinded the Joint Findings and Order and returned this matter to the trial level for further proceedings in the split panel decision of Villalprando v SCIF

The issue as framed by the WCJ does not address whether the terms of the parties’ agreement to utilize a professional administrator included any provision for a change of administration in the event Bridge Pointe ceases to operate or withdraws from providing the contracted services any time over the 30 year life of the agreement. There is no record as to the specific rights, duties and indemnifications as between the parties enumerated in the Compromise and Release Agreement. Such terms would reasonably be found in the contractual agreement that led to the MSA being administered by Bridge Pointe.

In order for applicant to be allowed to self-administer his MSA, he should establish his competency to manage his affairs and comply with the CMS requirements for self-administration. If State Compensation Insurance Fund still opposes applicant’s administration of his own MSA, it would then have to show good cause why the change should not be permitted.

Commissioner Zalewski dissented.  She would affirm the Joint Findings and Order for the reasons stated in the Workers’ Compensation Administrative Law Judge’s Report and Recommendation on Petition for Reconsideration. Applicant’s evidence of his dissatisfaction with the agreed upon administrator is not sufficient to establish good cause to set aside the parties’ agreement, reflected in the Compromise and Release regarding the administration of the Medical Set-Aside Account.

WCIRB Says Combined Ratio Drops to 96%

The WCIRB has completed its report on statewide workers’ compensation insurer loss and premium experience through December 31, 2016.

California written premium (gross of deductible credits) for 2016 is approximately $18.1 billion, which is 3% above the written premium reported for 2015

The preliminary calendar year combined loss and expense ratio for 2016 reported by insurers is 96%, which is below the combined ratios for the last several years. The lower combined ratios reported for 2015 and 2016 are primarily a result of increased premium levels and significant reductions in insurer case reserves in 2015 and 2016.

The combined ratio is calculated by taking the sum of incurred losses and expenses and then dividing them by earned premium. The ratio is typically expressed as a percentage. A ratio below 100% indicates that the company is making underwriting profit while a ratio above 100% means that it is paying out more money in claims that it is receiving from premiums. Even if the combined ratio is above 100%, a company can potentially still make a profit, because the ratio does not include the income received from investments.

The WCIRB projects indemnity claim frequency for accident year 2016 to be 1.3% below the frequency for 2015 but 9% above the frequency for 2009 . The frequency increases experienced from 2009 through 2014 are largely attributed to increases in cumulative injury claims, late reported indemnity claims, claims involving injuries to multiple body parts, and claims from the Los Angeles Basin area. 2015 and 2016 represent the first consecutive years of projected indemnity claim frequency decline since before the Great Recession.

The WCIRB projects the average cost (or “severity”) of a 2016 indemnity claim to be approximately $82,000, which is 4% higher than the projected severity for 2015 and 10% higher than that for 2013

The projected industry average charged rate (rates charged by insurers that reflect all rating plan adjustments except deductible credits, retrospective rating plan adjustments, terrorism charges, and policyholder dividends) per $100 of payroll for policies incepting between July 1, 2016 and December 31, 2016 is $2.67 (Exhibit 2). This is 6% below the average rate charged for the first six months of 2016 and 12% below the average rate charged for the first six months of 2015.

The WCIRB currently projects the total statewide ultimate losses on all injuries that occurred on or before December 31, 2016 to be approximately $4.6 billion less than the amounts reported by insurers.

Operation “Psyched Out” Nabs More LA Pharmacists

The owners of two local drug wholesale companies were among four defendants taken into custody on federal “structuring” charges that allege they made millions of dollars in cash deposits designed to circumvent federal reporting requirements.

This indictment marks the third phase of Operation “Psyched Out.” The investigation previously resulted in convictions against 17 defendants connected with the operators of a fraudulent medical clinic, Manor Medical Imaging. A medical doctor employed at the location, Kenneth Johnson, and two owners of a San Marino pharmacy, Phic Lim and Theanna Khou, were convicted in that case. In the second phase, the owner of a Glendale pharmacy, Peter Bagdasarian, was convicted of prescription drug misbranding connected to the scheme.

In this third phase, federal authorities arrested Richard Kayseryan, 41, of Burbank, the owner of Burbank-based TriMed Medical Wholesalers, Inc. Kayseryan is the lead defendant in a 20-count indictment returned on April 6 by a federal grand jury that charges four individuals and TriMed in relation to two separate schemes to structure millions of dollars in proceeds through “funnel” bank accounts set up in the names of shell companies.

Two other defendants – Derou Biglari, 31, and Jivani Markarian, 33, who own the Glendale-based drug wholesale business JD Pharmaceutical Wholesaler, Inc. – and the fourth defendant – Rafik Mesropyan, 56 – surrendered. These three co-conspirators, all Glendale residents, are charged with depositing millions of dollars of TriMed checks for Kayseryan, and returning the funds to him in the form of cash.

As part of the scheme, TriMed collected millions of dollars from business activities and Kayseryan prepared checks that he delivered to his co-defendants. The co-conspirators deposited the checks into the funnel accounts and immediately withdrew the funds in cash in amounts at or under $10,000 per transaction, according to the indictment. These transactions were designed to prevent banks from reporting the cash withdrawals to the federal government, which is required for every cash transaction of more than $10,000.

The indictment also charges Kayseryan with lying to federal agents about the funds during an interview in June 2016. Kayseryan allegedly falsely claimed that “he issued TriMed checks payable to the shell businesses…..for the purpose of making interest-bearing ‘investments’ in the shell businesses” and that he “did not receive ‘one cent’ of the funds from the TriMed checks back.” In fact, the businesses did not exist at all, and Kayseryan received millions of dollars in funds back from the checks in the form of cash.

Finally, the indictment charges Kayseryan with filing false tax returns that fraudulently overstated TriMed’s business expenses.

Investigators believe that Kayseryan wrote checks to the shell companies from 2010 through 2015 totaling more than $20 million and that Kayseryan claimed these checks were to pay business expenses. In fact, most of the shell companies did not actually exist other than on paper.

If convicted of the 20 counts in the indictment, Kayseryan would face a statutory maximum of 94 years in prison. Biglari and Markarian, if convicted, would each face 45 years, and Mesropyan could be sentenced to as much as 35 years in prison.

Is “Text Neck” a Cell Phone CT Epidemic?

Spine surgeons are noticing an increase in patients with neck and upper back pain, likely related to poor posture during prolonged smartphone use, according to a recent report.

Some patients, particularly young patients who shouldn’t yet have back and neck issues, are reporting disk hernias and alignment problems, the study authors write in The Spine Journal.

“In an X-ray, the neck typically curves backward, and what we’re seeing is that the curve is being reversed as people look down at their phones for hours each day,” said study coauthor Dr. Todd Lanman, a spinal neurosurgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

“By the time patients get to me, they’re already in bad pain and have disc issues,” he told Reuters Health. “The real concern is that we don’t know what this means down the road for kids today who use phones all day.”

According to the story in Reuters Health, Lanman and co-author Dr. Jason Cuellar, an orthopedic spine surgeon at Cedars-Sinai, write that people often look down when using their smartphones, particularly when texting as compared to browsing online or watching videos. Previous studies have also found that people hold their necks at around 45 degrees, and it becomes even worse as they sit, versus standing, the study team writes.

The impact on the spine increases at higher flexed postures, they add. While in a neutral position looking forward, the head weighs about 10 to 12 pounds. At a 15-degree flex, it feels like 27 pounds. The stress on the spine increases by degree, and at 60 degrees, it’s 60 pounds.

“For today’s users, will an 8-year-old need surgery at age 28?” Lanman said. “In kids who have spines that are still growing and not developed, we’re not sure what to expect or if this could change normal anatomies,” he told Reuters Health.

Lanman and Cuellar suggest simple lifestyle changes to relieve the stress from the “text neck” posture. They recommend holding cell phones in front of the face, or near eye level, while texting. They also suggest using two hands and two thumbs to create a more symmetrical and comfortable position for the spine.

Beyond smartphone use, the spinal surgeons recommend that people who work at computers or on tablets use an elevated monitor stand so it sits at a natural horizontal eye level. With laptops, they recommend a similar adaptation by using a separate keyboard and mouse so the laptop can be at eye level and still create a good ergonomic position while typing.

“It is difficult to recommend a proper posture for smartphone users. If we raise the phone at eye level to avoid the look-down posture, it will add new concerns for the shoulder due to the elevated arm posture,” said Gwanseob Shin of the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology Ergonomics Lab in South Korea, who wasn’t involved with the study.

“A more practical recommendation would be frequent rest breaks or some physical exercise that can strengthen the neck and shoulder muscles,” Shin told Reuters Health by email. “Some apps can give alarming signals to users to avoid prolonged looking-down posture.”

Lanman recommends stretches and basic exercises that focus on posture as well. He tells patients to lie on their beds and hang their heads over the edge, extending the neck backward to restore the normal arc in the neck. While sitting, he recommends aligning the neck and spine by checking that the ears are over the shoulders and the shoulders are over the hips.

“Ask your friend to take a photo of your upper body when you’re texting, then use the picture as the background image on your phone,” Shin said. “That will remind you to take breaks frequently. Even a short break of a few seconds – called a micro-break – can help our tissues recover.”

Orthopedists Review 30 Years of Advances

The editorial board of Orthopedics Today was asked what they think are the top advances in orthopedic surgery over the past 30 years.

It is now estimated that up to 80% of orthopedic procedures are amenable to the outpatient setting and many orthopedic practices have sophisticated imaging capabilities in their office and surgery centers.

The shortened recovery and associated disability with less invasive and more stable and rigid fixation have allowed patients to be more functional sooner, and reduced the morbidity of some of the previous approaches.

More recently, steady improvement in arthroscopic techniques and instrumentation and expanded use in the hip joint has furthered this subspecialty area of orthopedics.

Improvements and innovations in materials, articulation surfaces, peri- and postoperative management strategies and outcomes research have worked together during the last 30 years to decrease implant wear and increase function following joint replacement procedures.

Hip arthroplasty has benefited from the advent of porous metals, improvements in alternative bearing surface technologies, polyethylene advances and newer procedures, such as resurfacing surgery.

Some of the developments that have enhanced knee arthroplasty over the past 30 years include unicompartmental implants, modular components, fixed and mobile bearing designs, newer polyethylenes and computer assistance.

Characteristics of current knee designs that he thought to be associated with long-term in vivo durability as:

– articular surface congruency of either cruciate retaining or posterior stabilized implants;
– minimal motion between the polyethylene and tibial base plate or elimination of motion, as in monoblock implants;
– non-aged, compression molded polyethylene with moderate crosslinking, sterilized in an inert environment;
– CoCr tibial and CoCr or ceramic coated (Oxinium) femoral components;
– mobile bearing implants; and
– congruous, capacious patellar-femoral designs.

In order to be associated with long-term in vivo durability, these designs must be inserted with instrumentation that assures consistent alignment, soft tissue balance in flexion and extension and appropriate stability,

Imaging and its use in improving outcomes in orthopedic surgery have developed concurrently throughout the past 30 years, with smaller and more convenient methods giving physicians a wider range of possibilities. Even MRI and CT have seen recent changes in their implementation, with surgeons moving toward utilizing them for patient-specific implants or guides.

National Academy Reports on Fake Medical Research

Medical care in California Workers’ Compensation is now limited by treatment guidelines developed from the science of evidence based medicine.  The concept is only as good as the quality of the science that appears in medical literature.

Several decades ago, a series of highly visible cases of alleged research misconduct prompted researchers, research institutions, research sponsors, and others to consider how they might promote research integrity and address breaches in integrity more effectively.

This month a new 285 page report, titled “Fostering Integrity in Research,” to be published by the National Academies Press called on all stakeholders – including researchers, institutions, funders, publishers, scientific societies and federal agencies – to improve their policies and practices to respond to continuing and increasing threats to research integrity.

The authors claim that in recent years “it is clear that the research enterprise faces new and complex challenges in fostering integrity and in dealing with the consequences of research misconduct and detrimental research practices. Serious cases of research misconduct – including some that have gone undetected for years – continue to emerge with disturbing regularity in the United States and around the world. Increases in the number and percentage of research articles that are retracted and growing concern about low rates of reproducibility in some research fields raise questions about how the research enterprise can better ensure that investments in research produce reliable knowledge.”

The authors outlined the need for actions that help clarify authorship standards, ensure availability of data necessary to reproduce research, protect whistleblowers, and ensure that both positive and negative research results are reported.

The report also called for the creation of a nonprofit, independent advisory board designed to support efforts to strengthen research integrity, as well as reduce and address research misconduct.

“The research process goes beyond the actions of individual researchers,” committee chair Robert M. Nerem, PhD, MSc, BS, professor emeritus at the Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at Georgia Institute of Technology, said in a press release. “Research institutions, journals, scientific societies and other parts of the research enterprise all can act in ways that either support or undermine integrity in research.”

An earlier report released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in 1992 described and analyzed a variety of issues related to research integrity.

The definition of scientific misconduct established in that document – “fabrication, falsification or plagiarism in proposing, performing or reporting research” – remains valid, according to authors of the new report. However, the updated version suggests research practices that had previously been characterized as questionable – such as failure to retain research data, or misleading use of statistics – should now be considered “detrimental.”

“The research process goes beyond the actions of individual researchers,” Nerem said. “Research institutions, journals, scientific societies and other parts of the research enterprise all can act in ways that either support or undermine integrity in research.”

The National Academy of Sciences was established in 1863 by an Act of Congress, signed by President Lincoln, as a private, nongovernmental institution to advise the nation on issues related to science and technology. Members are elected by their peers for outstanding contributions to research.

Reseda Clinic Owner to Serve 51 Month Sentence

The office manager and part-owner of a Reseda medical clinic known as M.T.P. Medical Clinic, Inc., has been sentenced to 51 months in federal prison for his role in a healthcare fraud scheme that generated millions of dollars – money that was not reported on his federal income tax returns.

Michael Huynh, 67, of Northridge, was sentenced by United States District Judge Otis D. Wright II. In addition to the prison term, Judge Wright ordered Huynh to pay just over $1.9 million in restitution to the victim insurance companies and back taxes – estimated to be nearly $950,000 to the Internal Revenue Service.

Following a seven-day trial in September 2016, Huynh was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and 11 counts of filing false tax returns.

The evidence introduced at trial showed that between January 2004 and November 2009 Huynh and a pharmacist participated in a healthcare fraud scheme that billed private insurance plans for prescription medication that was never dispensed to insured patients.

Huyhn provided co-conspirator Farhad N. Dany Sharim with bogus prescriptions purportedly for patients of the medial clinic who were insured by healthcare benefit programs such as Aetna. Sharim, a co-owner of Century Discount Pharmacy located at 18254 Sherman Way in Reseda, then submitted false and fraudulent bills for prescription drugs that had not been dispensed to the patients.

As a result, Sharim’s pharmacy received substantial payments from various health care benefit programs to which it was not entitled, and Sharim paid Huyhn more than $1.1 million from the pharmacy proceeds.

In order to disguise the payments that he received from co-conspirator Sharim in exchange for the falsified prescriptions, Hunyh provided co- conspirator Sharim with false invoices in the name of H. D. H. Advertising for purported advertising services rendered to CDP. Hunyh received approximately eighty-two CDP checks signed by co-conspirator Sharim totaling approximately $1, 172, 907, which were disguised as payments for’ advertising services and made payable to his grandniece.

Farhad N. Dany Sharim, 57, of Sherman Oaks, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and will be sentenced by Judge Wright on May 1.

The Board of Pharmacy filed a disciplinary accusation against Century Discount Pharmacy, and owners Joseph Amin and Farhad Sharim and another pharmacist named Jong Am Kim in 2015.

The accusation said that the Boards investigation and “examination of prescription records for controlled substances raised many red flags including a repeating pattern of prescriptions written by Drs. Chumley and Rothman and Nurse Practitioner Park. Each prescription had nearly identical handwriting with similar spacing. In addition, most medical offices/clinics and patients were listed in either Compton or Los Angeles, CA, yet Respondent Century Discount Pharmacy, the pharmacy issuing the prescriptions, was located in Reseda, CA. More often than not, the patients traveled approximately 73 miles to fill their prescriptions.”

Certain prescribers responded to letters from the Board investigator. NP Park indicated that she did not write any of the prescriptions for the medications that were listed in the letter. Dr. Ahmed indicated that she had not seen the patients listed and did not prescribe any of the medications on the list. Drs. Byrd, Rothman, and Sison also indicated that they did not write any of the prescriptions on the list.

San Rafael Pharmacy Resolves DEA Dispute

United States Attorney Brian J. Stretch and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent in Charge John J. Martin announced that Golden Gate Pharmacy Holdings and its wholly owned subsidiaries, Golden Gate Pharmacy Services (GGPS) and Ross Valley Compounding Pharmacy (Ross Valley), have agreed to pay $717,250 to settle allegations by the U.S. Department of Justice that the companies failed to keep and maintain adequate records pertaining to controlled substances at their San Rafael, California facility.

Golden Gate Pharmacy Services and its sister pharmacy, Ross Valley Pharmacy have been providing traditional and nontraditional pharmacy services to Bay Area residents and Long Term Care Facilities since 1969. They have a physical location at 1525 Francisco Blvd East Suite #2 in San Rafael.

The settlement agreement, signed by Justice Department officials, was reached to resolve allegations by the government that a September 2014 DEA inspection uncovered multiple violations by GGPS and Ross Valley of the Controlled Substances Act, 21 U.S.C. § 801.

According to the agreement, San Rafael-based companies GGPS and Ross Valley each was, at the relevant time, registered with the DEA as a Retail Pharmacy providing them with authorizations to handle Schedules II, III, IIIN, and IV controlled substances.

GGPS and Ross Valley both acknowledged they had an obligation to “keep and maintain” records related to its receipt, manufacturing and distribution of controlled substances in connection with operations at their San Rafael, California facility.

According to the agreement, following the DEA’s inspection, the government concluded that between September 4, 2012, and September 4, 2014, GGPS and Ross Valley failed to record or maintain adequate inventory records or “records of the receipt, storage or shipment of controlled substances in at least 5,161 instances.”

In addition, according to the agreement, an employee at the San Rafael facility pilfered approximately 8,000 oxycodone tablets.

According to the terms of the agreement, Golden Gate Pharmacy Holdings, GGPS, and Ross Valley Pharmacy will pay the government $717,250 to resolve all civil claims related to the recordkeeping violations identified in the investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan U. Lee handled this matter with the assistance of Garland He and Jessica Hurtado.

Is There Subrogation Potential in Kimberly-Clark Class Action?

It is likely that California employers have had many workers’ compensation claims filed over the years by health care workers who claim infectious injury. Some of these workers may have been wearing safety equipment sold by Kimberly-Clark Corporation and Halyard Health Inc. Claim department data mining and data analytics may identify these past and present claims.That discovery may lead to subrogation or a setoff petition should the claimants also be plaintiffs in the Los Angeles Class action filed against these companies.

A Los Angeles jury on Friday night hit Kimberly-Clark Corporation and Halyard Health Inc. with a stunning $454 Million fraud verdict due to the sale by the companies of defective medical devices to doctors, hospitals and trauma centers throughout California for years.

The unanimous verdict, rendered by an eight-person Federal Court jury after hearing extensive evidence in the two-week trial, is likely one of the largest verdicts in U.S. history against a medical device maker. Pursuant to an indemnification agreement entered into between the two defendants, Halyard Health is obligated to pay the entirety of the $454 Million awarded by the jury.

The class action lawsuit, Bahamas Surgery Center, LLC v. Kimberly-Clark Corp et al, Case No. CV 14-8390-DMG, was filed in Los Angeles in United States District Court in October 2014, alleging that the defendants had committed fraud in the marketing and sale of certain of their medical gowns used in critical surgeries.

In particular, the suit claimed that the companies had falsely represented to the FDA, health care workers and the general public that the company’s “Microcool Breathable High Performance Surgical Gowns” (the “Surgical Gowns”) were impermeable and provided protection against serious diseases, including Ebola and HIV, despite the fact that the companies had known since 2012 that the gowns were defective, failed industry tests, and did not meet relevant standards, thus placing healthcare professionals and patients at considerable risk for infection, serious bodily harm and death.

The jury sided with the Plaintiffs Friday and found that the companies had concealed material information from healthcare professionals throughout California and had carried out their scheme with malice, oppression and/or fraud. “This fraud verdict should send a clear message to corporations throughout the United States that concealment and cover-up are not part of doing business,” said lead attorney Michael Avenatti of Eagan Avenatti, LLP, on behalf of the Plaintiffs.

The evidence presented at trial showed that Kimberly-Clark and Halyard knowingly misled the medical community, regulators and the general public about the safety of the Surgical Gowns and even after learning of multiple test failures, failed to alert the FDA, healthcare professionals and patients. Internal e-mails and documents from the companies showed employees describing the manufacturing process as “crap” and admitting that they were knowingly using defective and substandard equipment to make the gowns in Honduras.

Instead of recalling the gowns and disclosing the truth, the companies concealed what they knew, fired employees who knew too much and continued promoting, marketing and selling the gowns by stating they were impermeable, even going so far as to recommend that the gowns be used when treating patients with serious infectious diseases, including Ebola and HIV.

The Plaintiffs were represented at trial by Michael Avenatti, Ahmed Ibrahim and Filippo Marchino of California-based Eagan Avenatti, LLP, together with William C. Hearon of William C. Hearon, PA, based in Miami, Florida.