Several high-profile whistleblower cases have reached settlements with the federal government in the last three months, with some physicians taking home millions as part of the agreements.
Six whistleblower cases totaling more than $82 million:
1. Renton-based Providence Health & Services Washington will pay $22.7 million to resolve allegations it defrauded federal healthcare programs with medically unnecessary spine surgeries. The Justice Department learned about the allegations when the former neurosurgery director at one of Providence's hospitals filed a whistleblower complaint under the False Claims Act complaint against the health system. The whistleblower will receive $4.2 million of the settlement.
2. Anesthesia management services company Care Plus Management and its founders will pay $7.2 million to settle illegal kickback and false claims allegations. The company's founders allegedly convinced ASC physician-owners to award exclusive contracts in exchange for partial ownership in Care Plus anesthesia entities that would service the surgery centers. The whistleblower will receive more than $1.3 million from the settlement.
3. Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital agreed to pay $14.6 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit that alleged it violated federal regulations when surgeons left procedures to trainees because they were performing multiple cases. An anesthesiologist at MGH filed a whistleblower report when she left the hospital in 2015.
4. Tampa,...
A front-page article with the byline of veteran New York Times opinion writer Nicholas Kristof is the latest poisonous example of what I call the NGO “halo effect.” Headlined “The Silence That Mee...