PITTSBURGH — Today marked a major step forward in an explosive whistleblower lawsuit against University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, its physicians group, and the longtime head of its Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery.
U.S. District Court Judge Cathy Bissoon denied the hospital’s efforts to get a false-billing case that alleges patient harm dismissed.
In the federal False Claims Act complaint, the government said UPMC and its star surgeon Dr. James Luketich “regularly sacrificed patient health in order to increase surgical volume” and “maximize profit.”
The government’s lawsuit alleges Luketich repeatedly put patients at increased risk by conducting as many as three complex surgeries at the same time without being present for all key and critical portions, causing patients to endure hours of unnecessary anesthesia time. The lawsuit contends that Luketich then falsely billed Medicare, Medicaid and other government programs for those procedures.
The complaint also claims that “UPMC has persistently ignored or minimized complaints by employees and staff regarding Luketich” and “protected him from meaningful sanction; refused to curtail his surgical practice; and continued to allow Luketich to skirt the rules and endanger his patients.”
In the order denying the defendants’ motion to dismiss the case, the judge wrote, “Judicial experience and common sense dictate here that the Government has stated plausible FCA (False Claims Act) claims against...
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