MultiCare Health System has agreed to a multimillion-dollar settlement with law enforcement to resolve allegations it ignored “numerous red flags” and knowingly permitted and billed procedures conducted by a neurosurgeon under investigation for fraudulent, medically unnecessary care.
The DOJ said MultiCare had allowed former physician Jason Dreyer to perform spinal surgery procedures at its facilities between 2019 and 2021. It allegedly did so despite internal warnings from two employees and a notice from investigators that the neurosurgeon was under investigation by the state department of health, for practicing below medical standards of care, and by the federal government for fraudulent billing supported by falsified diagnoses.
MultiCare’s more than $3.7 million settlement with federal and Washington state follows six years of investigations and litigation filed against the nonprofit system in early 2024, the Department of Justice said in a release announcing the agreement. Those efforts had also yielded a $1.2 million settlement with Dreyer, in 2023, and a $22.7 million settlement with his former employer, Providence, in 2022.
“As the voluminous court records of this case demonstrate, MultiCare had direct knowledge of the danger Dr. Dreyer posed to patients, including through reports made by its own medical staff, and later from explicit warnings from federal investigators,” Pete Serrano, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, said in a...
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