that put profits before safety and falsely billed the government for millions of dollars, the hospital system agreed to pay $8.5 million in a settlement, the Department of Justice announced Monday.Dr.
“This office is committed to safeguarding the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and to protecting those programs’ beneficiaries. No medical provider — however renowned — is excepted from scrutiny or above the law.”Federal law bars teaching physicians such as Luketich from billing the government for concurrent surgeries — something that was “well known to UPMC leadership, and increased the risk of surgical complications to patients,” the Justice Department said in a statement Monday.
Luketich’s lawyer, Efrem Grail, said medical schools and hospitals have for years sought “clarity” about Medicare billing rules for teaching physicians, and called claims of fraud “baseless.”Language in the agreement allows the government to come back with further sanctions and even a criminal investigation if prosecutors think it’s warranted, said Gerardo Rollison, former general counsel for a large Ohio health care system.
That case has for months focused on a secret recording of Luketich and his physician discussing Luketich’s prescription for suboxone, a drug used to treat chronic pain and opioid addiction. At the heart of the case is a botched lung transplant performed by surgeons in Luketich’s unit on Bernadette Fedorka, of Aliquippa, who filed the malpractice suit.