OT researchers awarded $4.5 million grant for community-engaged disability research

Urologic Specialists of Oklahoma, Inc., a medical practice that operates five clinics employing two dozen physicians in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri, will pay $90,000 and furnish other relief to settle a pregnancy and disability discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.

Susan Magasi  and Joy Hammel have been awarded a five-year, $4.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The grant will fund the ENGAGED: Disability Community Engaged Medical Rehabilitation Research Resource Center, a hub for community-engaged training, outreach and investigation into the social, economic, environmental and policy factors that affect the health of people with disabilities.

The United States filed a complaint under the False Claims Act against three of the largest health insurance companies. The United States alleges that from 2016 through at least 2021, the insurers paid hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks to the defendant brokers in exchange for enrollments into the insurers’ Medicare Advantage plans.