Medical College of Wisconsin, Inc., False Claims Act, Wisconsin 2013

Medical College of Wisconsin, Inc. (MCW) has paid the federal government $840,000 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act.

In a statement, United States Attorney James L. Santelle of the Eastern District of Wisconsin announced that MCW is alleged to have knowingly billed federal healthcare programs for neurosurgeries involving residents who did not receive the required level of supervision from teaching physicians.

MCW is a medical school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that employs teaching physicians who provide medical care to patients and supervise residents.

The civil settlement resolves a lawsuit filed under the qui tam or whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act, which allows private citizens with knowledge of fraud to bring a civil action on behalf the United States and share in any recovery.

As part of the resolution, the whistleblower will receive a share of the settlement.

The qui tam complaint alleged that MCW submitted false claims to the Medicare and TRICARE programs for teaching physicians’ services in performing neurosurgeries involving residents.

If a resident helps perform a surgery, Medicare will pay for a teaching physician’s services only if he was present for the surgery’s key parts and either remained immediately available throughout the surgery or else arranged for a back-up surgeon to be available.

MCW allegedly billed for teaching physicians’ services even though they were responsible for multiple overlapping surgeries and did not satisfy those supervision requirements.

The settlement resolves certain claims submitted between April 16, 2006, and March 31, 2013. MCW denied the allegations.

‘The settlement we are announcing today reflects the focused, sustained, and purposeful efforts of the Justice Department, together with our partnered federal agencies, to investigate and redress fraud in our health care system,’ said Mr. Santelle.

Mr. Santelle specially commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Offices of the Inspectors General for the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense for the investigative efforts that led to today’s settlement.

The case was handled by Assistant United States Attorney Matthew D. Krueger.

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