Providence Medical Group has agreed to pay a $22.7 million penalty following a whistleblower complaint that two of its neurosurgeons in Walla Walla provided substandard care and committed billing fraud for several years.
The amount is the largest health care fraud settlement in Eastern Washington, said Vanessa Waldref, U.S. attorney for the region, in a news conference Tuesday morning in Spokane.
“What makes this case, and this resolution, so significant is not just the money,” Waldref said, “The most important aspect is the critical impact on patient safety.”
The complaint, filed in January 2020, alleges that two neurosurgeons – Dan Elskens and Jason Dreyer – provided substandard care at Providence St. Mary’s Medical Center between 2013 and 2018. The complaint alleges that Dreyer in particular filed Medicare claims for surgeries that were never performed, and that Elskens performed at least two surgeries that necessitated intervention by another surgeon to repair damage. The whistleblower brought this to the attention of superiors at Providence and urged their dismissal. Instead, the surgeons were placed on administrative leave and resigned.
In a statement released Tuesday, Providence said it was cooperating with a five-year settlement agreement that will require audits of its billing practices.
“We are committed to taking specific, concrete actions to ensure this isolated incident in Walla Walla does not happen again,” the statement reads. “Providence has strong...
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