Government Settles False Claims Act Allegations Against Kansas Cancer Treatment Facility and Its Owner | WPN World People News

Hope Cancer Institute, a cancer treatment facility in Kansas, and Dr. Raj Sadasivan, the owner of Hope Cancer Institute, have agreed to pay $2.9 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by submitting claims to Medicare, Medicaid and the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program for drugs and services that were not provided to beneficiaries, the Department of Justice announced.

“Billing Medicare and Medicaid for drugs that are not provided to beneficiaries contributes to the soaring costs of health care,” said Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Division Stuart F. Delery. “Providers will be investigated aggressively and held accountable for falsely billing federal health care programs.”

The settlement resolves allegations that, between 2007 and 2011, Sadasivan and Hope Cancer Institute submitted claims to federal health benefit programs for the chemotherapy drugs Rituxan, Avastin and Taxotere that were not provided to federal health care beneficiaries. Sadasivan allegedly instructed the employees of Hope Cancer Institute to bill for a predetermined amount of cancer drugs at certain dosage levels, when lower dosages of these drugs were actually provided to beneficiaries. As a result of these instructions, Hope Cancer Institute submitted inflated claims to federal health care programs for drugs that were not actually provided to patients.

“Health care providers that try to make a quick buck by billing taxpayers for services never provided will instead pay a high price for their greed-fueled fraud," said Gerald T. Roy, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. “We are dedicated to investigating and prosecuting these types of deceptive schemes.”

The settlement resolves a lawsuit filed by Krisha Turner, Crystal Dercher and Amanda Reynolds, former employees of Hope Cancer Institute, under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the False Claims Act, which allow private citizens with knowledge of false claims to file suit on behalf of the government and to share in any recovery.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice