Deerfield, Ill.-based Surgical Care Affiliates and Orlando Center for Outpatient Surgery will pay $3.4 million to settle kickback allegations related to kidney stone procedures, according to a June 28 Justice Department news release.
Six details:
1. Former employee Scott Thompson filed a whistleblower lawsuit against SCA and Orlando Center, alleging the ASC submitted false claims for extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy, a kidney stone procedure.
2. The suit accused Patrick Hunter, MD, a urologist at the center, of billing Medicare and Tricare for lithotripsy that wasn't medically necessary between January 2010 and April 2016. In some cases, the patients didn't have kidney stones.
3. Dr. Hunter died in 2019, and his estate paid $1.75 million to the federal government in November 2020 to resolve the billing fraud claims.
4. The suit also alleged that Dr. Hunter accepted pre-procedure payments from Orlando Center for his lithotripsy procedures, which the government classified as illegal kickbacks, violating the Anti-Kickback Statute.
5. SCA vetted and approved the agreement between Dr. Hunter and the ASC, according to the Justice Department's statement.
6. Mr. Thompson received $748,000 of the $3.4 million settlement as the whistleblower.
Surgical Care Affiliates issued the following statement on the settlement: "The safety of our patients and the integrity of our services are our highest priorities and we take all allegations of wrongdoing very seriously. SCA fully cooperated with the investigation and we are pleased to resolve this case involving a physician who has not had privileges at any SCA surgery center since early 2016. This settlement is not an admission of liability and does not constitute a determination that the allegations have merit."