UPMC, head of cardiothoracic surgery will pay $8.5M to feds to settle lawsuit

“Patients don’t know their doctors are serving two masters.”

UPMC, a renowned cardiothoracic surgeon there and a physicians group will pay the federal government $8.5 million to settle a lawsuit accusing them of knowingly submitting hundreds of false claims to Medicare, failing to follow medical standards for surgery and knowingly placing patients at risk.

he U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a lawsuit against UPMC, Dr. James Luketich and University of Pittsburgh Physicians in September 2021 alleging Luketich was regularly scheduling multiple complex surgeries at the same time, forcing him to move between operating rooms and sometimes hospitals, while requiring patients to stay under additional hours of anesthesia.

In one case, a patient lost parts of a hand and another lost a lower leg as a result, the government said.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the settlement will resolve the claims in the case.

Paul Wood, a UPMC spokesman, said at issue in the complaint was compliance with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services teaching physician regulations and related billing guidance, as well as UPMC’s internal surgical policies.

“While UPMC continues to believe Dr. Luketich’s surgical practice complies with CMS’s requirements, it has agreed to pay $8.5 million to the government to avoid the distraction and expense of further litigation,” Wood said.

In the future, he continued, UPMC will be permitted to seek clarity from Medicare on how it should bill for complex procedures.

Efrem Grail, the attorney representing Luketich, said he and his client are pleased the settlement ends the government’s case.

“Medical schools and their hospitals have sought clarity about the billing regulation for teaching physicians at issue here for years, and the United States has never provided it,” Grail said. “This settlement provides a mechanism we hope will lead to authoritative guidance so that universally respected surgeons like Dr. Luketich can return their focus to training young doctors to save lives without having to put up with baseless claims of fraud.”

In addition to the $8.5 million payment, the defendants are required to create a corrective action plan for Luketich and submit to a yearlong, third-party audit of Luketich’s billings to Medicare for physician services.

The initial lawsuit was filed following allegations brought by former UPMC surgeon Dr. Jonathan D’Cunha, who worked for the health system from 2012 to 2019 and served as the surgical director of lung transplantation.

D’Cunha, who now practices in Arizona, filed a federal whistleblower complaint in April 2019.

He also is involved in an ongoing civil dispute in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court regarding Luketich’s actions.

Bernadette Fedorka and her husband are suing Luketich and UPMC alleging that she received improper care because of the ongoing practices at play in the federal complaint. Luketich was not her treating physician and did not care for her.

In that civil case, UPMC and Luketich filed a motion for a preliminary injunction seeking to prohibit the parties from using a 2018 secretly obtained recording between Luketich and his doctor, who had been for years treating him with suboxone.

Judge Philip Ignelzi held several days of contentious hearings on the matter last year, and the parties filed briefs outlining their positions on the injunction last week.

A ruling is expected on the injunction request soon.

As part of the federal complaint, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said UPMC “regularly sacrificed patient health in order to increase surgical volume,” while violating Medicare rules.

Those rules require teaching hospitals to have a teaching physician in the operating room during “critical portions” of a procedure and “immediately available” throughout the procedure.

“This is an important settlement and a just conclusion to the United States’ investigation into Dr. Luketich’s surgical and billing practices, and UPMC and UPP’s acceptance of those practices,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Troy Rivetti. “This office is committed to safeguarding the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and to protecting those programs’ beneficiaries. No medical provider — however renowned — is excepted from scrutiny or above the law.”

There have been at least three other cases nationally in which large hospital systems have settled similar billing allegations over a lack of oversight in the operating room and simultaneous surgical procedures.

Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston paid $14.6 million last year; St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix paid $10 million in 2021; and Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City paid $12.3 million in a settlement in 2019.

Attorney Reuben Guttman, who was counsel in the New York and Boston cases, called the conduct involved in these types of claims “egregious,” saying the surgeons involved are taking advantage of their patients.

“These practices at teaching hospitals across the country are pervasive, and it’s a real problem,” Guttman said. “Patients don’t know their doctors are serving two masters.”

Although the financial settlement in the UPMC case is small in comparison to the hospital system’s $24 billion in annual revenue, Guttman said it is still important.

“The money is going to be inconsequential. But it’s more you’re changing the standard of care,” he said. “Every single settlement like this is important because it sheds light on a practice that is pervasive.”

Because of this settlement, Guttman said plaintiffs in any medical malpractice cases against UPMC going forward will be able to ask what other cases their doctors were working on at the same time.

“It’s going to expose UPMC to a lot of inquiry in medical malpractice cases, and that will drive change,” he said.

Guttman suggested UPMC’s insurance carriers also will impose new requirements on the health system to limit that risk.

The practice of hosting multiple procedures at the same time, Guttman said, is another example of money driving medical care, noting that fraud like this ends up with Medicare and Medicaid being cheated and patients receiving less-favorable outcomes.

Guttman suspects there are similar cases in the pipeline. He said every time a case such as this one settles, physicians working in a setting where fraud is occurring will feel emboldened to step forward as a whistleblower.

“UPMC can’t just put this in a box and say this is done,” Guttman said. “UPMC is misrepresenting the settlement as saying it’s a billing problem. It’s a patient care problem that they’ve billed for.”

Source: Paul Reed, Tribune-Review. Article available at https://triblive.com/news/health-now/upmc-head-of-cardiothoracic-surgery-will-pay-8-5m-to-feds-to-settle-lawsuit/.

CLE: Demand Letters and Pre-Complaint Settlement

Program Summary

Civil litigation is no more than a process to resolve disputes. Most cases never go to trial because the process is designed to provide parties with sufficient information about their risks before a decision maker such that they reach their own resolution.

Every now and then, there are cases that can be resolved absent the cost and time incumbent in the civil litigation process.

This CLE program will outline the types of cases susceptible to pre-complaint resolution and the various methods that may be employed to bring the parties to a point where they can resolve their disputes.

Key topics to be discussed:

  • The various uses purposes for pre-complaint dialogue
  • The purpose, tone, and form of a demand letter
  • How to keep the dialogue moving in the right direction
  • The relevant evidentiary and ethical rules

Date / Time: February 28, 2023

  • 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Eastern
  • 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Central
  • 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm Mountain
  • 11:00 am – 12:00 pm Pacific

Closed-captioning available.

Speakers

Reuben Guttman | Guttman, Buschner and Brooks PLLC

Reuben Guttman is a founding member of Guttman, Buschner and Brooks PLLC. His practice involves complex litigation and class actions. He has represented clients in claims brought under the Federal False Claims Act, securities laws, the Price Anderson Act, Department of Energy statutes and regulations, the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and various employment discrimination, labor and environmental statutes. He has also tried and/or litigated claims involving fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, antitrust, business interference and other common law torts.

The International Business Times has called Mr. Guttman “one of the world’s most prominent whistleblower attorneys.” He has served as counsel in some of the largest recoveries under the False Claims Act. Mr. Guttman served as lead counsel in a series of cases resulting in the recovery of more than $30 million under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Mr. Guttman is the author and/or editor of numerous articles, book chapters, and technical publications.

In addition to his writings, Mr. Guttman has testified before committees of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate on the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA). Mr. Guttman earned his law degree at Emory University School of Law, where he has been a Senior Fellow and Adjunct Professor at the Emory University School of Law Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution and has been a Team Leader for the school’s Trial Techniques Program. He is a faculty member of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy and Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

He is currently a Professional Lecturer at the American University School of Public Affairs where he teaches Equal Protection/Constitutional Law. He is co-author of the text Pretrial Advocacy (NITA/Wolters-Kluwer 2021 with Professor JC Lore) and he has published more than 100 articles.

Agenda

I. The various uses purposes for pre-complaint dialogue | 2:00pm – 2:15pm

II. The purpose, tone, and form of a demand letter | 2:15pm – 2:30pm

III. How to keep the dialogue moving in the right direction | 2:30pm – 2:45pm

IV. The relevant evidentiary and ethical rules | 2:45pm – 3:00pm

To Register or for more information visit: https://mylawcle.com/products/demand-letters-and-pre-complaint-settlement/

Demanding more impact from impact litigation: lessons to be learned from multi-state opioid settlements

By Reuben Guttman and Liza Vertinsky, July 25, 2022

In the 1990s, state Attorneys General learned how to leverage their resources when they retained private counsel to sue the tobacco industry. The private attorneys worked on contingency, meaning they did not get paid unless money was recovered from the tobacco industry. For their part, the states were able to take on novel litigation and draw from private investments in legal innovation without putting taxpayer dollars at risk.

Since the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement was signed in 1998, state Attorneys General have worked with private counsel in similar relationships to bring an array of healthsafety, and environmental suits focused on health impacts. These suits have included cases against drug companies, the most notorious of which featured opioid manufacturers and distributors.

In July 2022, 52 states and territories, along with many local governments, entered into a $26 billion multijurisdictional agreement with three major pharmaceutical distributors and a pharmaceutical manufacturer to settle claims arising from their opioid business practices. This multistate opioid settlement followed earlier ones reached with the now-infamous Purdue Pharma, as well as with McKinsey ConsultingMallinckrodt, and Insys Therapeutics, and was followed by settlements with two more opioid manufacturers. The result was a multi-state enforcement effort by Attorneys General that is the second largest in U.S. history, exceeded only by the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.

While the state Attorneys General who participated in these suits and settlements were quick to herald them as a major success, with more than $30 billion in settlement funds and future monitoring and restricting future opioid deliveries, it is a stretch to say these are industry-changing events. Too little was done to educate policymakers and the public about the nature and sources of industry misconduct and to address the remaining vulnerabilities in the pharmaceutical manufacturing and distribution system. The results did too little to change the market ecosystem that fueled the epidemic.

The opioid litigation, like many cases brought against pharmaceutical and device companies, challenged marketing practices that have caused products to be used in ways that place profits ahead of patients, often putting patients at risk of harm. These lawsuits exposed practices that have resulted in professional standards of care that seem to be influenced more by Wall Street promises than by medical necessity.

Yet far too often, these cases are resolved short of full fact finding — called discovery — or without a public trial and a published court decision. Multi-million-dollar opioid settlement resolutions are touted in press releases as major successes while the culprit corporations admit to nothing, simultaneously telling investors that the settlement was a business decision and will not affect the long-term bottom line. Indeed, history shows that when drug companies pay hundreds of millions of dollars — or even billions of dollars — to resolve claims of drug marketing derelictions, their price per share is not affected, or may even get a boost because investors believe the settlement was a cheap fee for a license to break the law.

As much as these cases have provided an inkling of the profit-motivated misconduct of companies that Americans depend on for health care and a safe environment, knowledge of the depth of corporate misconduct remains just that, an inkling. Confidentiality agreements — often executed to prevent delays in producing the documents required for civil litigation — keep the most sordid details secret. And when there is no trial, the public gets to learn little about identifying wrongful conduct and legislators have difficulty making laws that prevent it.

Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis famously wrote that sunshine is the best disinfectant. While recovering money for public programs is essential, state Attorneys General must do a better job of also making public the lessons learned from these opioid settlements. If the drug industry is using subtle marketing tactics to manipulate the prescribing habits of physicians, for example, the public — including legislators, regulators, the press, and even physicians — must know the details.

Impact litigation must be designed to effect changes in industry behavior. Just as the National Transportation Safety Board investigates and issues a public report when a train wreck occurs, and just as Environmental Impact Statements are required for federal projects that could significantly affect the quality of the human environment, state Attorneys General should treat corporate health and safety derelictions as deserving of detailed public reports. And they should make it clear to the attorneys involved — whether in-house or under contingency agreement — that confidentiality agreements cloaking the secrecy of wrongdoing are to be used only sparingly, to protect legitimate trade secrets that are not essential to reforming industry practices, and not to hide information that is important to the public.

In the end, the public needs to know all the facts and policymakers need to act on the facts. A simple press release announcing a seemingly high-dollar settlement doesn’t achieve either of those objectives.

__________________________

Reuben Guttman, a partner with Washington, D.C.-based Guttman, Buschner & Brooks, has litigated under the False Claims Act to challenge pharmaceutical marketing practices. Liza Vertinsky is a professor of law at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. Their article “Public-Private Litigation for Health” was published in the Utah Law Review.

Source: Article available on-line at Statnews.com.

Whistleblowers and fears of losing funds key to enforcing U.S. vaccine rules

Workplace whistleblowers and a fear of losing federal funds are expected to play vital roles in ensuring compliance with COVID-19 vaccine mandates ordered by President Joe Biden’s administration for U.S. businesses, nursing homes and hospitals, according to experts.

Biden announced last Thursday that his administration will enforce the vaccine mandates starting on Jan. 4. The rules apply to employers with at least 100 workers, federal contractors and employees of nursing homes and other healthcare facilities that receive reimbursements under the Medicare and Medicaid government healthcare programs.

On Saturday, a federal appeals court suspended the new vaccine and testing requirement for private companies while the court considers it in more depth. It gave the Justice Department until late Monday to respond. The portion of the mandate for the healthcare sector is not affected by Saturday’s ruling.

If the rule goes into effect, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which enforces work safety rules, is not likely to immediately swoop in to ensure that vaccination and testing rules are being followed, experts said.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the regulator for the two federal health programs, does not typically survey accredited healthcare providers unless there is a complaint or a need for recertification, according to Sandy DiVarco, a partner at the firm McDermott Will & Emery who represents healthcare providers.

Since patients and clients do not have access to staff vaccination records, those complaints would likely come from another staff member, DiVarco added.

“On a stakeholder call, CMS reiterated their desire to work with providers to come into compliance and not to sort of send SWAT teams to go out and look for problems,” DiVarco said.

Healthcare facilities could lose their access to Medicare and Medicaid funds if they fail to heed the vaccine requirements. Medicare serves people aged 65 and older and the disabled while Medicaid serves the poor.

“For most hospitals across the country not being able to participate in Medicare would be crippling,” said Akin Demehin, the American Hospital Association’s director of policy.

The healthcare workers mandate applies to more than 10 million employees, around 70% of whom already have been vaccinated. It covers around 76,000 healthcare providers that receive Medicare or Medicaid reimbursements including hospitals, nursing homes, dialysis centers, ambulatory surgical settings and home-health agencies.

For the private employer rules, OSHA has an estimated 800 safety and compliance inspectors to cover more than 100,000 companies covered by the mandate. The agency likely will rely on whistleblowers concerned about unvaccinated co-workers or that unvaccinated people are not being tested as required, said James Hermon, a labor and employment expert with the firm Dykema Gossett.

Hermon predicted that OSHA will hit a couple of big employers with major fines soon after the mandate takes effect.

“That will be done intentionally to put some virtual heads on spikes,” Hermon said. Each violation can bring a fine of nearly $14,000.

The financial threat from a federal law called the False Claims Act, which rewards whistleblowers for reports of fraud that results in losses for the government, might ensure compliance with the vaccine rules better than OSHA’s penalties, according to one expert.

“We’re interested in these cases and we’ve been looking at them,” said Reuben Guttman, a whistleblower lawyer with the firm Guttman, Buschner & Brooks, who said he has been talking to unions. “The idea of using the False Claims Act to enforce health and safety standards is not novel.”

(Reporting by Diane Bartz, Ahmed Aboulenein and Tom Hals; Editing by Will Dunham)

Source: https://kfgo.com/2021/11/08/whistleblowers-and-fears-of-losing-funds-key-to-enforcing-u-s-vaccine-rules/.

Reuben A. Guttman, District of Columbia Fellow, Co-Publishes “Pretrial Advocacy”

District of Columbia Fellow Reuben A. Guttman has co-authored a new book, “Pretrial Advocacy,” to be released by the National Institute for Trial Advocacy. (Now available in print and e-book here.) The volume, which was also written by Rutgers Professor J.C. Lore, discusses the “unwritten rules” of pre-trial preparation and grapples with the challenges of efficiently developing cases that can stand up to jury scrutiny in the face of overflowing demand, even though 90% of civil cases never make it to trial.

If anybody is qualified to talk about effective legal advocacy, its Reuben Guttman. The Guttman, Buschner & Brooks founding partner has spent his 36-year career releasing staggering sums of money from the grasps of oil refineries, pharmaceutical organizations, and prisons who have run afoul of laws such as the False Claims Act and the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Mr. Guttman, who started his legal career as counsel for the Service Employees International Union, AFL-CIO, is a whistleblower’s best friend—in 2015, he helped Florida’s Lynn Szymoniak gain an $18 million settlement after she uncovered a fraudulent foreclosure scheme that threatened to undermine her own housing and that of thousands of other homeowners.

In addition to being a legal superstar, Mr. Guttman is a familiar figure in the academy and the press. When he isn’t giving his time to Emory University School of Law as an adjunct professor, journal advisor, or board member, he’s writing for or being quoted in more than 30 journals and media outlets as varied as The New York Times and Peking University Public Interest Law Journal. Mr. Guttman’s international influence stretches from the U.S. federal government, where he has testified before Congress and advised President Clinton’s transition team, to as far away as China, where he has offered his thoughts on Chinese labor laws at the Dutch Embassy and lectured at universities in Shanghai and Beijing.

Source: American Bar Foundation.

Now Available in print and e-book here.

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