Elizabeth Holmes Gets Her Day In Court As Theranos Trial Begins Today
At the heart of the matter are thousands of patients whom Holmes and Theranos are accused of defrauding: a mother misled about her pregnancy, a patient told to stop taking heart medication and patients who received false HIV-positive results, NBC reports.
NBC News:
Theranos' Blockbuster Trial Starts Wednesday. Whose Story Will The Jury Believe?
The blockbuster trial of Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos’ founder and former CEO, begins Wednesday in a tale that has spawned a book, a documentary, a miniseries and a coming movie — and put Silicon Valley itself on trial. The elements of captivation for, of all things, a high-tech blood-testing startup are clear. It is rare for a CEO — let alone a former billionaire female CEO — to face trial and 20 years in jail. The case has already been marked by head-turning, last-minute revelations and allegations. And Holmes’ meteoric rise to black-turtlenecked cover girl and media darling is matched only by her catastrophic fall from grace. (Popken, 9/7)
The Wall Street Journal:
The Trial Of Elizabeth Holmes: Who’s Who In The Theranos Case
Theranos Inc. founder Elizabeth Holmes is facing a criminal trial in federal court in San Jose, Calif., on charges that she defrauded investors and patients by lying about the accuracy of her company’s finger-prick blood-testing technology. She has pleaded not guilty to charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Here are some of the major players in the trial and the events leading up to it. Most of the people declined to comment or couldn’t be reached. (9/7)
AP:
Elizabeth Holmes' Trial To Dissect Downfall Of A Tech Star
Just six years ago, Elizabeth Holmes seemed destined to fulfill her dream of becoming Silicon Valley’s next superstar. She was the subject of business magazine cover stories describing her as the youngest self-made female billionaire in history, former President Bill Clinton was reverently quizzing her about her thoughts on technology, and then Vice President Joe Biden was hailing her ideas as an inspiration. Now Holmes is about to head into a San Jose, California, courtroom to defend herself against criminal allegations depicting her as the devious mastermind of a fraud that duped wealthy investors, former U.S. government officials and patients whose lives were endangered by a blood-testing technology that never came close to fulfilling her bold promises. (Liedtke, 9/8)
And a spinal device manufacturer has been charged in a kickback scheme —
KHN:
Florida Spine Surgeon And Device Company Owner Charged In Kickback Scheme
A Florida orthopedic surgeon and designer of costly spinal surgery implants was arrested Tuesday and charged with paying millions of dollars in kickbacks and bribes to surgeons who agreed to use his company’s devices. Dr. Kingsley R. Chin, 57, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is the founder, chief executive officer and owner of SpineFrontier, a device company based in Malden, Massachusetts. He and the company’s chief financial officer, Aditya Humad, 36, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, were each indicted on one count of conspiring to violate federal anti-kickback laws, six counts of violating the kickback statute and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, officials said. (Schulte, 9/8)
The Boston Globe:
Malden Spinal Device Company, Executives Charged With Bribing Surgeons
A Malden spinal device manufacturer and two of its top executives were charged Tuesday with bribery and money laundering for their roles in an alleged kickback scheme where surgeons were paid sham consulting fees to use the company’s products, generating millions in revenues, the US Attorney’s office for Massachusetts said in a statement. SpineFrontier Inc. chief executive Kingsley R. Chin, 57, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla, and chief financial officer Aditya Humad, 36, of Cambridge were each charged with one count of conspiracy to violate an anti-kickback statute, six violations of that statute, and one count of conspiracy to violate the statute, prosecutors said. (McKenna, 9/7)
In other health industry news —
Modern Healthcare:
House Lawmakers Eye Funding For Long-Term Care Staffing Retention
States could receive $1.6 billion in new funding from the federal government to help recruit and retain long-term care workers under a proposal released Tuesday by a key congressional committee. The U.S. House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday released the first of several bills it hopes to include in the $3.5 trillion healthcare, education and climate change package Democrats are working on. (Hellmann, 9/7)
Modern Healthcare:
Providers And Insurers Want Leniency On Surprise Billing Ban
Providers and insurers want the federal government to take it easy on them as they try to put the surprise billing ban into practice, according to comments on the first regulation stemming from the No Surprises Act. Both industries say they want to protect consumers against balance billing but remain worried they don't have essential details about how the ban will work in the real world nor enough time to carry out needed changes. They're especially concerned about the non-consumer-facing aspects of the ban, including the finer points of setting qualifying payment amounts and how arbitrators will use that in the independent dispute resolution process. (Brady, 9/7)
Modern Healthcare:
Physicians Call For 'Guardrails' Against Profit-Driven Interests In Healthcare
Increased commercialization within healthcare should be tempered with "guardrails" to ensure the industry continues to focus on patients' care quality first, according to a new policy paper from the American College of Physicians. The paper, published Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, warns the increased prevalence of more profit-motivated entities within the medical field runs the risk of creating "a bloated, complex and fragmented healthcare system," which pits the desire of caretakers to provide quality patient care against the corporate need to generate better margins. (Ross Johnson, 9/7)
