HELENA — The U.S. Department of Justice and St. Peter’s Health have reached a $10.8 million settlement over charges that the hospital submitted false claims to federal health programs related to the care provided by its former doctor.
Thomas Weiner, an oncologist who worked at St. Peter’s Cancer Treatment Center, now called Cancer Care Services, was fired in 2020 after the hospital received numerous allegations about his conduct.
Some of those allegations included a failure to accurately document the level of service used to bill federal health programs. St. Peter’s then voluntarily disclosed the alleged misconduct to federal authorities.
According to the Department of Justice, Weiner used his position to “order medically unnecessary treatment, such as chemotherapy and other infusions, blood tests, imaging, and office visits” and “upcoded” claims between Jan. 1, 2015, and Dec. 31, 2020, that indicated a higher level of service than was actually performed. U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich said at a press conference Tuesday that since Weiner was an employee of St. Peters Health, the hospital is responsible for the false claims.
Laslovich said that most of the settlement — $9.98 million — is restitution owed by the hospital to the federal programs that paid the false claims, predominately Medicaid and Medicare. The remaining sum will be paid to the government.
“It’s a significant settlement and it’s a large amount of money, and that’s not lost on any...
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