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Did anyone see ABC primetime about it yesterday?
The UIC fired the guy who blew the whistle and now lets him teach only once a week.
Here's an article about it:
Copyright 2003 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
Chicago Sun-Times
July 29, 2003 Tuesday
SECTION: NEWS SPECIAL EDITION; Pg. 3
LENGTH: 558 words
HEADLINE: UIC hospital sued for Medicare fraud
BYLINE: Steve Warmbir
HIGHLIGHT:
Facility accused of rigging list of patients awaiting new livers
BODY:
When Dr. Raymond Pollak protested that some Chicago hospitals, including his own, were fudging facts to put their liver-transplant patients to the head of the line for donor organs, he was told to get with the program, Pollak alleges.
It was the "Chicago way."
That's what Pollak contends he was told by high-level administrators at the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago.
On Monday, federal and state attorneys sued the hospital for more than $3 million and announced settlements with two other prestigious hospitals--Northwestern Memorial Hospital and University of Chicago Hospitals--contending all three gamed the health care system for its liver transplant patients in the mid- to late-1990s by making patients appear sicker than they were and improperly billing the federal government for it.
"What they were doing was taking people at the back of the line and putting them at the front," Pollak said.
The doctor, former head of the transplantation surgery division at the hospital, filed a whistleblower lawsuit in 1999 and argues he was demoted, harassed and libeled by hospital officials after he brought the problem to light and wouldn't ignore it.
All three hospitals denied any wrongdoing.
Patients at UIC at the top of the list for a donor liver were supposed to be at death's door, but in reality one was dressing up as a clown to entertain people at the hospital while another got passes to go home overnight, according to court records.
While the federal lawsuit and settlements don't specify how widespread the alleged fudging of the patients' condition was, Pollak said an audit determined there were "dozens" of privately insured patients at the three hospitals who were falsely diagnosed to move them up the line.
A spokeswoman for United Network for Organ Sharing, the group that manages the nation's transplant system for the federal government and did the audit, declined to discuss the audit's findings.
The University of Chicago settled for $115,000 and Northwestern for $23,587. Both hospitals said they settled to avoid the costs of litigation.
A Northwestern Memorial Hospital spokeswoman said the low dollar amount of its settlement spoke for itself, and the dispute with the feds centered on whether two critically ill patients with liver failure spent too much time in the intensive care unit.
The Sun-Times first reported in April last year the federal government's investigation into practices at the three hospitals.
The lawsuit against UIC alleges that by increasing the number of its liver-transplant patients, the hospital ensured it would meet the criteria to qualify for Medicare reimbursement for such procedures.
Pollak also contended that "volume drives this business," noting that the more patients a transplant program has, the more referrals it will receive. Transplant programs can be important moneymakers for hospitals.
The doctor stressed that the system to allocate transplants has improved significantly, with more objective criteria. And he said he never regretted blowing the whistle on what had happened, despite steep personal costs, including seeing his salary slashed, his reputation trashed and a transfer out to Peoria by the university.
"I have no regrets because I'm serving an important public interest," Pollak said.
GRAPHIC: Rich Hein, Dr. Raymond Pollak (right) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Noller talk to reporters in Chicago on Monday.
LOAD-DATE: August 1, 2003
The UIC fired the guy who blew the whistle and now lets him teach only once a week.
Here's an article about it:
Copyright 2003 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
Chicago Sun-Times
July 29, 2003 Tuesday
SECTION: NEWS SPECIAL EDITION; Pg. 3
LENGTH: 558 words
HEADLINE: UIC hospital sued for Medicare fraud
BYLINE: Steve Warmbir
HIGHLIGHT:
Facility accused of rigging list of patients awaiting new livers
BODY:
When Dr. Raymond Pollak protested that some Chicago hospitals, including his own, were fudging facts to put their liver-transplant patients to the head of the line for donor organs, he was told to get with the program, Pollak alleges.
It was the "Chicago way."
That's what Pollak contends he was told by high-level administrators at the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago.
On Monday, federal and state attorneys sued the hospital for more than $3 million and announced settlements with two other prestigious hospitals--Northwestern Memorial Hospital and University of Chicago Hospitals--contending all three gamed the health care system for its liver transplant patients in the mid- to late-1990s by making patients appear sicker than they were and improperly billing the federal government for it.
"What they were doing was taking people at the back of the line and putting them at the front," Pollak said.
The doctor, former head of the transplantation surgery division at the hospital, filed a whistleblower lawsuit in 1999 and argues he was demoted, harassed and libeled by hospital officials after he brought the problem to light and wouldn't ignore it.
All three hospitals denied any wrongdoing.
Patients at UIC at the top of the list for a donor liver were supposed to be at death's door, but in reality one was dressing up as a clown to entertain people at the hospital while another got passes to go home overnight, according to court records.
While the federal lawsuit and settlements don't specify how widespread the alleged fudging of the patients' condition was, Pollak said an audit determined there were "dozens" of privately insured patients at the three hospitals who were falsely diagnosed to move them up the line.
A spokeswoman for United Network for Organ Sharing, the group that manages the nation's transplant system for the federal government and did the audit, declined to discuss the audit's findings.
The University of Chicago settled for $115,000 and Northwestern for $23,587. Both hospitals said they settled to avoid the costs of litigation.
A Northwestern Memorial Hospital spokeswoman said the low dollar amount of its settlement spoke for itself, and the dispute with the feds centered on whether two critically ill patients with liver failure spent too much time in the intensive care unit.
The Sun-Times first reported in April last year the federal government's investigation into practices at the three hospitals.
The lawsuit against UIC alleges that by increasing the number of its liver-transplant patients, the hospital ensured it would meet the criteria to qualify for Medicare reimbursement for such procedures.
Pollak also contended that "volume drives this business," noting that the more patients a transplant program has, the more referrals it will receive. Transplant programs can be important moneymakers for hospitals.
The doctor stressed that the system to allocate transplants has improved significantly, with more objective criteria. And he said he never regretted blowing the whistle on what had happened, despite steep personal costs, including seeing his salary slashed, his reputation trashed and a transfer out to Peoria by the university.
"I have no regrets because I'm serving an important public interest," Pollak said.
GRAPHIC: Rich Hein, Dr. Raymond Pollak (right) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Noller talk to reporters in Chicago on Monday.
LOAD-DATE: August 1, 2003
