The U.S. attorney's office asked a federal judge not to dismiss a whistleblower lawsuit against the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and one of its top surgeons, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported March 10.
James Luketich, MD, chair of UPMC's cardiothoracic surgery department and one of the health system's top earners, allegedly acted as a "rogue surgeon," billing for overlapping surgeries he didn't perform, the report said.
The federal suit alleges Dr. Luketich sometimes wasn't in the building when the surgeries in question were underway, exposing patients to hours of unnecessary anesthesia. The case was originally filed by a former UPMC physician under the False Claims Act, the report said.
UPMC allegedly billed government healthcare programs millions of dollars in false billings, the report said. The defendants said the government has not and cannot allege that another qualified physician wasn't present during the surgeries.