Radnor doctor with history of False Claims allegations faces new federal lawsuit

May 5—The U.S. Attorney's office in Philadelphia sued a Radnor doctor last week, alleging that the vascular and interventional radiologist collected at least $6.5 million from Medicare and other government sources for performing hundreds of medically unnecessary procedures.

It's at least the third time state and federal government officials have alleged that James F. McGuckin or clinics he controlled subjected patients to unproven or unneeded treatments.

Washington state sanctioned him in 2015 for using an experimental procedure on multiple sclerosis patients. In 2018, McGuckin signed a multi-million-dollar False Claims Act settlement of whistleblower complaints in New York and Louisiana against a Philadelphia-based chain of clinics he controlled — and subsequently put into bankruptcy, according to state and federal officials.

The newest lawsuit, filed in U.S District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, focuses on procedures McGuckin did on people with peripheral artery disease between 2016 and 2019. The condition is a narrowing of arteries that restricts blood flow to the arms and legs and can cause severe pain while walking, but only rarely warrants the interventions McGuckin did frequently, according to the government.

On June 18, 2019, for example, McGuckin performed multiple procedures for leg pain while walking on a patient who was paralyzed on her left side and couldn't walk, the 85-page complaint alleges. The procedures included inserting a stent into the femoral artery of her right leg. He collected $17,499 for that work, according to the complaint.

"Performing medically unnecessary procedures puts patients at risk and contributes to the soaring costs of health care, especially the invasive vascular procedures alleged in this case," U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero said in a news release.

An attorney for McGuckin, David A. Dorey, who works in Blank Rome LLP's Wilmington office, denied that McGuckin is guilty of the latest "baseless" allegations regarding treatment of people with a diagnosis of peripheral artery disease.

"Dr. McGuckin has dedicated his career to treating this debilitating disease in accordance with industry standards and data-driven best practices, appropriately billing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for his services," according to the statement.

A trail of investor litigation

For seven years McGuckin has been fighting in Delaware County Court of Common Pleas with an investor who put $11 million into Vascular Access Centers, a company McGuckin founded in 2005. At its peak, the Philadelphia-based company had more than 20 locations nationwide. It was subject to the 2018 False Claims Act settlement in New York and Louisiana.

The investor, W. Whitfield Gardner, who was the majority owner of Vascular Access Centers, accused McGuckin of improperly siphoning company profits to himself and using company resources to open competing clinics, including Main Line Vascular Institute in King of Prussia.

After that litigation took a negative turn for McGuckin in 2019, he put Vascular Access Centers into bankruptcy with the help of another investor in the company and his brother. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ashely M. Chan ruled that McGuckin "orchestrated the filing of this bankruptcy in bad faith" to block the investor lawsuit.

In a rare bankruptcy move, Chan then appointed a bankruptcy trustee to oversee and sell Vascular Access Centers, finding that McGuckin was "untrustworthy, and consistently puts his own interests ahead" of the company.

The trustee, Steven V. Falanga, on Friday did not respond to a question about how much money Vascular Access Centers had paid toward its $3.85 million false claims settlement in New York.

From one disease to the next

While the new False Claims Act lawsuit in Philadelphia alleges that McGuckin billed for medically unnecessary treatments for peripheral artery disease, the New York settlement, which covered July 2012 through December 2016, focused on treatments for people with end-stage renal disease.

Federal officials alleged that McGuckin's Vascular Access Centers performed fistula grams (an injection of dye to visualize the flow of blood) and angioplasties used to restore blood flow on patients "as a matter of routine, regardless of whether there was a justifiable clinical reason to do so."

Washington state in 2015 sanctioned McGuckin for performing experimental vascular procedures, including angioplasty and stenting, for the purported treatment of multiple sclerosis. As part of a consent order he had to stop doing the procedures he had been doing from 2010 to 2013, refund money to patients who had paid out-of-pocket, and take an ethics course.

"McGuckin failed the ethics course twice and only passed after taking the course with the help of a one-on-one tutor," according to last week's complaint.

___

(c)2023 The Philadelphia Inquirer

Visit The Philadelphia Inquirer at www.inquirer.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.