Whistle-blower Suit (Orthopedic - Hip Replacement Docs)

[Harrison]

A little off-topic to this forum, but this is very interesting & disturbing story for lots of different reasons. Pls read the entire article if you can; the print-ready article is here.

Rush, 6 doctors named in whistle-blower suit

Surgeon, former hospital executive say orthopedic center fraudulently billed Medicare for surgeries for which they were not present

By Melissa Harris

July 8, 2010

A group of doctors at Rush University Medical Center's prestigious orthopedic department routinely overbooked their schedules and relied heavily on residents to perform surgeries, violating federal Medicare billing rules, according to a newly unsealed whistle-blower lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

The suit alleges that in one instance, a surgeon never entered the operating room to supervise a procedure. In others, a surgeon monitored residents performing operations via video feed while simultaneously performing his own operations in nearby rooms.

The lawsuit, filed by another Rush surgeon, Dr. Robert Goldberg, along with a former hospital executive, portrays Rush's orthopedic center as a business focused on quantity over quality, risking patient health in pursuit of "monetary rewards and celebrity status." To do that, doctors sidestepped specific Medicare billing rules that require teaching physicians to be present during critical portions of procedures, the suit said.