A Chattanooga eye surgery center has agreed to pay $17 million to settle a federal complaint brought by two "whistleblowers" who claimed there were violations of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute.
The federal government had brought the action against SouthEast Eye Specialists, together with SouthEast Eye Surgery Center and the Eye Surgery Center of Chattanooga (SEES) in Federal Court in Nashville.
The settlement amount is to be paid to the United States and Tennessee to resolve allegations that the defendants illegally induced primary care eye doctors (optometrists) to refer – or steer – patients to SEES for cataract surgeries by providing optometrists a variety of forms of financial remuneration. Those optometrists provided referrals to SEES for cataract surgeries reimbursed by Medicare and TennCare, resulting in alleged violations of the False Claims Act.
Whistleblowers Dr. Ross Lumpkin, a Nashville optometrist, and Gary Odom, who served as an executive in the statewide optometric association for decades, are to receive $4,760,000 of the settlement.
Represented by Phillips & Cohen LLP and Morgan Verkamp LLC, the two whistleblowers alleged in a False Claims Act lawsuit that SEES "used a variety of approaches to secure a stream of referrals by inducing optometrists to refer patients to SEES, including continuing education, meals, sporting events, and inappropriate pre-arranged co-management agreements with optometrists.
"When cataract surgery is co-managed, the surgeon...
Over the last year, beyond traditional healthcare and federal procurement matters, the government has pursued federal False Claims Act (FCA) investigations and enforcement across high-risk areas, i...