Nevada is critisized - UNH & TEVA

Northern, WI 03/28/2013 (avauncer) - Health Plan of Nevada, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE:UNH) (Current $57.00, Up by 0.67%) is accused of giving more value to profits over patients. A gastroenterologist, Dr. Dipak Desai administered hepatitis C to a patient of colonoscopy. It is a case of mishandled anesthetic Propofol, largely used in the treatment of colonoscopy as an anesthetic. The attorney who is fighting the case for the woman who was a former patient of Dr Dipak Desai alleges to have contracted the disease due to substandard practices of medicine followed in the hospital unit to bring down costs and expand revenues. Dr. Desai also faces charges of second-degree murder of a colonoscopy patient.

Robert Eglet will be representing two patients who were treated by Dr. Dipak Desai. The treatment dates back to 2007 when the epidemic, hepatitis C broke out across the U.S. Robert Eglet, the attorney said that the outbreak of hepatitis was due to Desai’s practice of reusing the vials of propofol. It is also said that Desai even did not follow the practice of sterilizing equipments. As a result of the lawsuit, the 50,000 patients who were treated then at the Nevada unit were ordered to notify, in case they would have contracted the blood disease which is believed to be fatal.

The two women who have filed the case, Bonnie Brunson and Helen Meyer seek compensatory damages of $25 Million from the insurer who failed to oversee the fraudulent practices of Dr Desai. However, te jurors’ may even award a sum of $1 Billion as compensatory damages.

Advocate Lee Roberts, representative of the insurer remarked that the Robert Eglet has not submitted any substantial evidence of the failure of the insurer in overseeing its duties. The officers of the insurer remarked that the lawsuit was “driven only by attorney greed” referring to Robert Eglet.

Nevada had already paid tens of millions of dollars of retaliatory awards to patients treated by Dr. Desai using the Propofol produced by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (NYSE:TEVA) (Current $39.52, Up by 0.08%). TEVA itself has paid over $250 Million in 2012 to settle cases against the controversial use of Propofol.