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Broward Health Chair Challenges Suspension

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
Broward Health
/
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

The chairman of the board at the embattled Broward Health Hospital District is challenging Gov. Rick Scott's decision to suspend him from the post, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports.

 
A Fort Lauderdale judge held a two-hour hearing on Friday over the March 18 removal of Broward Health chairman David Di Pietro and board member Darryl Wright. According to the Sun Sentinel, Attorney General Pam Bondi's staff defended the suspension, saying the board interfered several times into an ongoing state inspector general's investigation.
 
The state investigation into possible wrongdoing is just the latest controversy surrounding the four-hospital system. Last year, the system agreed to pay $70 million connected to a whistleblower's claim of Medicare and Medicaid fraud. And in January, Broward Health CEO and president Dr. Nabil El Sanadi died from suicide.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.