Home

Climate Change Project

Table of Contents

Courses

Search


<< >> Up Title Contents
Fraud

Fraud arises when a physician intentionally misleads a patient about the risks and benefits of a treatment. It becomes a serious legal (and criminal) issue when a patient is induced to accept substandard care by forgoing beneficial treatment or submitting to an unorthodox treatment. Concerns about fraud often arise when a physician begins to specialize in an unorthodox treatment. The most common examples are weight loss clinics that employ unusual and unapproved regimens, such as giving patients human chorionic gonadotrophin injections or pesticide pills. A patient who can establish fraud may be entitled to punitive damages. Fraudulent dealings may also subject the physician to criminal prosecution and the loss of his or her license. One physician who was involved with a fraudulent weight loss clinic was successfully prosecuted under the federal racketeering laws.[56]

[56]U.S. v. Bachynsky, 934 F2d 1349 (5th Cir 1991).


<< >> Up Title Contents

Law and the Physician Homepage
Copyright 1993 - NOT UPDATED

The Climate Change and Public Health Law Site
The Best on the WWW Since 1995!
Copyright as to non-public domain materials
See DR-KATE.COM for home hurricane and disaster preparation
See WWW.EPR-ART.COM for photography of southern Louisiana and Hurricane Katrina
Professor Edward P. Richards, III, JD, MPH - Webmaster

Provide Website Feedback - https://www.lsu.edu/feedback
Privacy Statement - https://www.lsu.edu/privacy
Accessibility Statement - https://www.lsu.edu/accessibility