$3.5M
settlement reached in suit against fake doctor
Tuesday, February 17, 2004
By Melissa Nann
A class action lawsuit involving mental health patients
treated by a man who posed as a psychiatrist has been settled
for $3.5 million.
Hundreds of Northeast Philadelphia patients assumed the psychiatrist
their HMO referred them to was a real doctor, and they went
to him for help.
But David E. Tremoglie was a fake, and he served time in
federal prison as punishment for treating people without a
valid medical license, according to court documents.
"Mental health patients are among the most vulnerable
people in our community," said Alan
M. Feldman of Feldman, Shepherd, Wohlgelernter, Tanner and Weinstock,
who represented the class with Thomas
More Marrone.
The class was made up of about 350 of the 500 patients contacted
by class counsel. Feldman estimated that after costs for expenses,
attorney fees and an incentive award for the title plaintiff
were subtracted from the settlement amount, a class member
could recover about $5,000.
Six years ago, the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas certified
the class of mental health patients who sued Tremoglie, along
with his insurer, the mental health services provider that
hired him and the HMO that referred the patients to him, according
to court documents.
The lawsuit contended that the defendants had misrepresented
Tremoglie as a licensed practitioner and that they failed
to notify Tremoglie's patients when they learned he had lied
about his credentials and experience, according to court documents.
Judge Stephen E. Levin said the class could attempt to recover
economic, nominal and punitive damages for invasion of privacy,
breach of confidentiality, fraud and breach of contract in
Katlin v. Tremoglie.
In 2002, Judge Allan L. Tereshko granted summary judgments
in favor of the defendants, finding that the class members
did not have the proof to support their claims. The case was
appealed.
Tremoglie "practiced" as a psychiatrist at a treatment
center on Bustleton Avenue for about eight months in 1996,
according to court documents. Patients were referred to him
through Keystone Health Plan East Inc., a health maintenance
organization and subsidiary of Independence Blue Cross, which
subcontracted the care and treatment of their clients needing
psychiatric and substance abuse treatment to GreenSpring Health
Services Inc., a mental health care provider, according to
court documents.
Tremoglie eventually admitted that his medical license, as
well as his license to write prescriptions, were fraudulent,
and GreenSpring fired him in October 1996. But GreenSpring
didn't notify Katlin or Tremoglie's other patients that their
psychiatrist hadn't been a real psychiatrist until nine months
later -- a week after Katlin filed the class action lawsuit,
according to court documents.
The parties settled the breach of contract claim, and GreenSpring
refunded about $10,000 for co- payment fees the patients had
made for Tremoglie's treatment, according to court documents.
The remaining claims proceeded to court, where Tereshko granted
the summary judgments in favor of the defendants in July 2002,
according to court documents.
Katlin appealed the ruling to the Superior Court, but before
the court ruled on the case, GreenSpring and another of the
defendants, Advantage Behavioral Systems Inc., filed for Chapter
11 bankruptcy protection in March 2003. The courts then stayed
the action, according to court documents. |
