A federal judge rejected the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's bid to dismiss a whistleblower lawsuit against UPMC, its physicians group and its chair of cardiothoracic surgery, NBC affiliate WPXI reported July 7.
The defendants are accused of submitting hundreds of false claims to Medicare, Medicaid and other government health programs over a six-year period.
The Justice Department alleges UPMC and James Luketich, MD, chair of cardiothoracic surgery at the medical center, "regularly sacrificed patient health in order to increase surgical volume" and "maximize profit," according to the report.
Dr. Luketich allegedly performs up to three complex surgeries at the same time, does not participate in "key and critical" portions of his cases and has patients under anesthesia for long periods as he moves between operating rooms, the Justice Department said.
An internal incident report from 2016 claimed two patients undergoing surgery by Dr. Luketich in separate operating rooms were left under general anesthesia with towels covering their surgical wounds, with no progress made in either case between 3 and 7 p.m., according to the report. The report alleges a third operating room was prepared at 6 p.m. for another of Dr. Luketich's cases. He was unable to be reached by phone or via his clinic and eventually arrived in the post-anesthesia care unit at 6:45 p.m., the report alleged.
Several of Dr. Luketich's patients allegedly suffered complications as a result of these...
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