November 8, 2019

Lenox Hill Hospital and its corporate parent, Northwell Health, Inc., have agreed to pay $12.3 million for violating the Stark Law and False Claims Act in submissions to Medicare.  From 2013 to 2018, Lenox Hill paid the chair of its urology department, Dr. David Samadi, a salary and bonus that improperly took into account the value of his referrals and grossly exceeded fair market value.  In an effort to maximize revenue-generating surgeries, Samadi was repeatedly scheduled to perform overlapping surgeries, leaving patients with unsupervised medical residents in violation of both hospital and Medicare rules.  The department also billed Medicare for minor procedures performed in operating rooms with an unnecessarily full operating room staff.  USAO SDNY

Tagged in: Anti-Kickback and Stark, FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Hospital Fraud, Improper Medical Personnel, Medicare,