A cancer clinic, Elizabethtown Hematology Oncology PLC, has settled a Medicare and Medicaid fraud suit brought by a whistleblower for $3.7 million. The basis for the suit is allegations that the clinic prolonged chemotherapy infusion treatments by diluting the infusions and by billing for office visits as chemotherapy treatments. The effect of prolonging the infusions and lengthening the process was to increase the amount that could be billed to Medicare and Medicaid, which paid based on the duration of the treatments.
The whistleblower case was brought under the federal False Claims Act by a doctor that worked formerly at the clinic. Under the False Claims Act the whistleblower will be entitled to $283,412 of the settlement.
Andrew Wolfson reports on the case and settlement in the Louisville Courier-Journal: E'Town Cancer Clinic Pays $3.7 Million for Prolonged Chemo Treatment.
Lexington, Kentucky Medicare fraud lawyer Robert Abell represents individual whistleblowers in cases brought under the False Claims Act; contact him at 859-254-7076.
