U.S. Attorney Asks Court to Reject UPMC Attempts to Dismiss Lawsuit Over Surgeon's Billing

by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The U.S. attorney’s office recently told a federal judge that Dr. James Luketich, a physician at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), was a "rogue surgeon" who made his own rules in billing for surgeries he did not perform and that his employers looked the other way. The U.S. attorney’s office made the allegations in response to a motion by Luketich, UPMC and University of Pittsburgh Physicians to dismiss a 2021 whistleblower suit brought by the Department of Justice over his conduct in UPMC operating rooms. The suit claims Luketich systematically billed for multiple surgeries he did not perform. Sometimes he wasn't even in the building when the surgeries were underway, exposing patients to hours of unnecessary anesthesia, the suit alleges. The case was initially filed by an ex-UPMC doctor under the False Claims Act. The U.S. attorney intervened under the whistleblower provisions of that act.

Read more.