KATC.com

Tagged News

• Louisiana Eye Care Facing Possible Changes Play Video

  April 22, 2013 11:50 PM

  Changes could be on the way for eye care in Louisiana. Under House Bill 527, optometrists could perform procedures now performed by medical doctors. A board may determine whether optometrists could give certain injections or perform laser surgery. Eye care doctors across the state are at odds because there... more »

• Doctor sentenced for health care fraud

  February 22, 2013 9:34 AM

  NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A doctor who bilked Medicaid and Medicare as part of a phony billing scheme has been sentenced to 32 months in federal prison. On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Lance Africk also ordered Yelena Ivanova to pay the federal government almost $2.5 million in restitution. Prosecutors... more »

• Sickness a Possibility from Staying on Carnival Triumph

  February 14, 2013 6:49 PM

  Passengers on the Carnival Triumph are in close quarters and with reports of sewage issues and deteriorating conditions on board, the threat of illness is a strong possibility. For nearly four days, passengers have experienced what they say are miserable conditions. Lafayette Doctor Indria Gautam says one of the... more »

• Doctors Call Flu Strain "Aggressive," Kids Hit Hard Play Video

  January 9, 2013 7:49 PM

  Louisiana is one of 29 states reporting widespread cases of the flu. State health experts say the most commonly identified strain of flu is one of the three covered by this year's vaccine. This flu season is being called the worst outbreak in a decade, starting in October instead... more »

• Doctor: Puerto Rico boxer Camacho is brain dead

  November 22, 2012 9:03 AM

  SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - Doctors say famed Puerto Rican boxer Hector 'Macho' Camacho is clinically "brain dead" after being shot in the face. Dr. Ernesto Torres said at a news conference Thursday that doctors are still performing tests on Camacho before meeting with his family. Torres had said... more »

• Federal prosecutors want doctor in prison

  August 21, 2012 9:13 AM

  LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) - Federal prosecutors say a former cardiologist who has been free for more than three years after his conviction on health care fraud charges should report to prison after losing his appeal. An attorney for Dr. Mehmood Patel told The Advocate Monday that he will seek to... more »

• Kenner Doctor Arrested, Accused of Medicaid Fraud

  July 28, 2012 2:11 PM

  BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - The owner of a medical clinic in Kenner has been booked with two counts of Medicaid fraud. Attorney General Buddy Caldwell said Friday that 78-year-old Dr. George A. Farber Sr. surrendered to his office's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit on Thursday and was booked into the... more »

• Lafayette doc: La medical society's youngest president

  February 3, 2012 9:14 AM

  BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A kidney specialist from Lafayette is the Louisiana State Medical Society's youngest president ever. The society says Dr. Anthony P. Blalock officially took over the duties after the society's House of Delegates met Jan. 27-28 in Baton Rouge. He had been elected a year ago.... more »

• Jury Search Resumes in Jackson Doctor Case

  April 7, 2011 11:51 AM

  LOS ANGELES (AP) - With lawyers raising a new theory involving money and its role in Michael Jackson's death, a judge is summoning a third panel of prospective jurors for the involuntary manslaughter case against Dr. Conrad Murray. Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor, who has already screened 340 prospects and... more »

• Missing Doctor in Iberia Parish

  December 13, 2010 8:08 PM

  On December 13, 2010 at approximately 9:00 a.m. the Iberia Parish Sheriff's Office received a report of a missing person. It was reported to the Sheriff's Office that Dr. Robert Chastant (DOB 12/23/1950 Height 5'11" Weight 195) was due to report to his office this morning at 8:30 a.m., which... more »

• Former Doctor Booked in jail Sex Case

  November 6, 2010 5:01 PM

  COVINGTON, La. (AP) - A former doctor - working as a medical technician at the St. Tammany Parish jail despite pleading guilty to drug charges - was arrested after he allegedly had sex with an inmate. According to Saturdays Times-Picayune, Paul Nathan, who pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining prescription drugs... more »

• Octomom's Doctor in Court For Implanting Her With Too Many Embryos

  October 18, 2010 1:06 PM

  LOS ANGELES (AP) - The fertility doctor who treated octuplets mother Nadya Suleman is at a licensing hearing in Los Angeles to face allegations that he implanted her with too many embryos. Wearing a gray suit and a blank expression, Dr. Michael Kamrava sat quietly alongside his lawyer at... more »

• Iberia Parish Coroner Remembered

  October 14, 2010 7:14 PM

  The Iberia Parish Coroner of 18 years, Dr. James Falterman Sr. died suddenly Tuesday. Lynn Guiberteau worked in Dr. Falterman's office, she said, she's known him" since I was 18. I've known no other doctor. He took care of me and delivered my children." Guiberteau says, she has... more »

• La. doctor, company owner plead guilty to fraud

  October 4, 2010 10:03 PM

  BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A New Orleans doctor and the owner of a medical equipment company have pleaded guilty to participating in a scheme to submit more than $775,000 in fraudulent Medicare claims. Dr. Dahlia Kirkpatrick and Emmanuel Komandu, owner of Baker-based Alpha Medical Solutions Inc., each face maximum... more »

• LA Doctors Will Have to Repay $17 Million in Overpayments

  September 9, 2010 11:48 AM

  BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Thousands of Louisiana doctors must repay $17 million in overpayments they received from the state last year because the Department of Health and Hospitals failed to make Medicaid budget cuts on time. The physicians who provide health care for the poor through the government health... more »

• Doctor: Accused Teacher Mentally Ill

  July 8, 2010 9:10 AM

  LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) - A psychiatrist has testified that Allison Hargrave, a former private-school counselor accused of a federal sex crime, is mentally ill and in need of treatment. Hargrave is accused of using e-mail to entice a 14-year-old girl at Ascension Episcopal School in Lafayette to engage in sexual... more »

• New School Health Center to Open

  April 16, 2010 2:08 PM

  Poor attendance and many students going home sick-- and families without health insurance- create barriers to learning for Carencro Middle School. The solution, principal Matt Harman says, is an on-campus clinic: "If they're having illnesses...that translates to how they perform in the classroom; and we have a lot... more »

• Healthcare Bill Reactions from Acadiana

  March 22, 2010 1:58 PM

  President Obama's healthcare bill is in its final steps, and it is sparking passionate reactions from people here in Acadiana. Some locals who been following the healthcare bill all along are furious: "It's not change-- it's chains. This healthcare bill is to support a socialist agenda to control... more »

• Feds join civil suit against Dr. Patel

  November 24, 2009 3:04 PM

  LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) - The federal government has intervened in a civil lawsuit against a Lafayette cardiologist convicted of charges he performed medically unnecessary heart procedures. Dr. Mehmood Patel was sentenced in June to 10 years in prison for his conviction on 51 counts of health care fraud. He is... more »

• Conquest of the Coastlands

  November 23, 2009 11:16 AM

  UL's Center for Innovative Learning and Assessment Technologies is working on a variety of science-based educational video games for middle school students. I spoke with the director, Doctor Douglas Williams, about its most recent game called Conquest of the Coastlands. Williams says that educational video games are a much more... more »

• Local doctors react to new breast screening guidlines

  November 23, 2009 10:09 AM

  Local doctors are speaking out against new recommendations for breast cancer screenings. Dr. Lewis Hill and Dr. Gary Mathews say the U.S. Preventative service task force is wrong. The new guidelines say women can wait to take breast examinations starting at the age of 50; before it was 40. Dr.... more »

• Blue Cross to Cover H1N1and Seasonal Flu Vaccines

  November 19, 2009 11:55 AM

  Blue Cross to Cover H1N1 (Swine) Flu and Seasonal Flu Vaccines For Individual Members and Fully Insured Group Members Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana (BCBSLA) will cover the administration of H1N1 (swine) flu and seasonal flu vaccinations for its members. All individual members and fully insured group members... more »

• Ex-Kiss drummer: Breast cancer not just for women

  November 18, 2009 9:46 AM

  SPRING LAKE, N.J. (AP) - Lying in bed one night in 2007, Peter Criss felt something strange: a small lump on his left breast. "I thought, `It's a nodule, I'm a guy, I don't think it's anything more than that,"' he said. "The more I messed with it, the bigger... more »

• UL Oliver Hall Dedication

  October 30, 2009 7:33 PM

  COMPUTER SCIENCE BUILDING NAMED FOR JAMES R. OLIVER LAFAYETTE - Wilson Dietz first met Dr. James R. Oliver when Dietz was a high school student in Egan, La. "In 1946, when he was a fighter pilot, he buzzed our high school," Dietz recalled. "He later took some of... more »

• Ville Platte deputy arrested on drug charges

  October 30, 2009 9:20 AM

  OPELOUSAS, La. (AP) - A St. Landry Parish sheriff's deputy has been arrested on drug charges. Deputy Chris LeJeune of Ville Platte was arrested this week as part of a joint operation between the St. Landry and Evangeline Parish sheriff's offices. Jimmy Darbonne with the St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Office... more »

• St. Landry Deputy arrested for doctor shopping

  October 23, 2009 2:37 PM

  St. Landry- On October 22, agents with Louisiana State Police Region II Criminal Investigation Division arrested a St. Landry man and his girlfriend for charges of obtaining a controlled dangerous substance by fraud. In October 2009, agents began an investigation on thirty-one-year-old Devin Acaldo and his girlfriend twenty-nine-year-old Stephanie... more »

• DHH Updates Status of Fight the Flu Campaign

  October 20, 2009 12:20 PM

  BATON ROUGE - State Health Officer Jimmy Guidry, M.D., today held a press briefing to update influenza activity in Louisiana as well as the state's H1N1 vaccination campaign. Dr. Guidry emphasized that as the H1N1 vaccination campaign moves forward, it is important for Louisiana families to be patient if their... more »

• Flu, How Bad? Interactive Web site to help quantify flu severity

  October 7, 2009 9:13 AM

  WASHINGTON (AP) - So you think you've got swine flu? Now there's help at the click of your computer mouse. An interactive Web site is being offered to help people decide just how bad their case is. Microsoft is teaming up with Emory University to offer the online help, designed... more »