In 2002, the person in charge of billing at the UT Southwestern medical school brought a whistle-blower suit against the school, alleging that “audits between 1993 and 1997 found that surgeons in as many as 16 UTSW departments were submitting [Medicare and Medicaid] bills for postoperative care, deliveries and other operations they did not perform.”
For various legal reasons, the Justice Department didn’t pursue that suit; but here comes a more recent one, from a former surgical department chair, claiming
UTSW was improperly charging Medicare and Medicaid for resident supervision that faculty doctors weren’t providing before, during and after surgery.
He also accused Parkland of permitting the lax oversight and using surgical consent forms that misled patients into thinking faculty doctors, rather than residents, would operate on them.
Without admitting guilt, the hospital has just settled this one, for $1.4 million.