Former medical director sues John Oliver over Medicaid segment

Dr. Brian Morley, former medical director of AmeriHealth Caritas, is taking Last Week Tonight host John Oliver to court. In his complaint, Morley claims Oliver twisted his words on TV, making him sound like he's cool with Medicaid patients marinating in their own feces.

As reported by The Independent, Last Week Tonight's April 2024 episode focused on Medicaid service denials. Oliver aired footage of a cerebral palsy patient, Louis Facenda Jr., who had to go without crucial nursing care for six weeks.

A Des Moines Register article reported Facenda had to spend "as much as half of each day in a dirty diaper after his caregiver services provided through Iowa's Medicaid program were dramatically cut." The Independent reported that "AmeriHealth Caritas, a so-called managed care organization advising the state's Medicaid program, halted payments for the crucial services."

Oliver then pulled up Morley's 2017 testimony about another patient whose care was cut from twice a day to five times a week.

"People have bowel movements every day where they don't completely clean themselves, and we don't fuss over [them] too much," Morley said during testimony. "People are allowed to be dirty… You know, I would allow him to be a little dirty for a couple of days."

Morley "thinks it's okay if people have s**t on them for days," said Oliver on his show. "F**k that doctor with a rusty canoe. I hope he gets tetanus of the balls."

Morley insists his comments were taken out of context. His suit states that he "did not equate wiping poorly with leaving anyone sitting in their own feces for days — whether disabled, incontinent, wearing diapers or not. He testified to the opposite." (Both patients won their appeal and had their care restored.)

Morley is demanding compensatory damages, special damages, punitive damages, and removing the offending episode from every corner of the internet.