Cancer doctor and clinic agree to pay $2.9 million to settle federal whistleblower lawsuit
By Alan Bavley, The Kansas City Star | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
It was those records at the
Sadasivan and his clinic have agreed to pay
The
Sadasivan's attorney,
The alleged fraud at Hope Cancer was discovered by three of the clinic's office workers after they found medical records for a "phantom patient," a woman none of the workers recognized.
In 2012, the employees filed a lawsuit against Sadasivan and the clinic through a law that encourages whistleblowers to file fraud claims on behalf of the federal government by giving them a share of whatever the government collects. Under the terms of the law, the employees also gave the
"In this case, the fraud appeared to be pretty blatant and the government intervened," said
Recent local health fraud cases include a
Last year, a
"Health care providers that try to make a quick buck by billing taxpayers for services never provided will instead pay a high price for their greed-fueled fraud,"
According to their lawsuit, the three
However, the medical record for the phantom patient showed she was receiving 1,000-milligram infusions of Rituxan. The three employees concluded that Sadasivan was cutting and pasting from the phantom patient's file to actual patient files when
By claiming the larger doses, the lawsuit said, Sadasivan overbilled
Sadasivan allegedly overbilled for other chemotherapy drugs as well, court documents said.
In addition, Sadasivan billed
Sadasivan also scheduled just four and a half hours per week for office hours; enough time to give the 25 to 30 patients he would see about 10 minutes each. Rather than bill
Federal whistleblowers are entitled to 15 percent to 25 percent of the amount the government recovers from fraud cases, Kistler said. How much his three clients will get "remains to be determined. It's common that there's some negotiation."
To reach
___
(c)2014 The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Mo.)
Visit The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Mo.) at www.kansascity.com
Distributed by MCT Information Services
Wordcount: | 851 |
Walt Cagley Insurance Becomes WCI, Expanding Services for the Collateral Recovery Industry
Advisor News
Annuity News
Health/Employee Benefits News
Life Insurance News