Chicago, IL-(ENEWSPF)- A Lombard doctor and his surgical center will pay more than $750,000 to the United States to settle a civil lawsuit accusing them of submitting fraudulent claims to Medicare and a federal employee health program.
The suit in U.S. District Court in Chicago alleged that JOHN A. GREAGER, II and CANCER THERAPY ASSOCIATES, S.C. violated the False Claims Act by performing multiple mole removal procedures on patients on a single date. However, they submitted or caused the submission of claims to Medicare and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), making it appear that the procedures were on multiple dates. Through this practice, known as “unbundling,” Greager and CTA made Medicare and the FEHBP pay more than they would have if they billed the procedures as having occurred at the same visit.
Settlement Specifics
As part of a settlement agreement approved this week by U.S. District Chief Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer, Greager, and CTA agreed to pay $757,879.90 to the United States. The settlement resolves a civil lawsuit filed under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the False Claims Act. The Act permits private citizens to bring lawsuit cases on behalf of the United States for false claims and to share in any recovery. The United States intervened in the lawsuit before the settlement.
Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, announced the settlement. Several others joined Pasqual in the announcement: Robert W. “Wes” Wheeler, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI; Mario Pinto, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General; Irene Lindow, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General in Chicago; and Conrad J. Quarles, Deputy Assistant Inspector General for Investigations of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management Office of the Inspector General. Assistant U.S. Attorney Virginia Hancock represented the government.
There was a separate criminal prosecution of Greager. This resulted in a 6-month prison sentence and a fine of $1 million for the Lombard doctor.
U.S. v. Greager et al. settlement agreement
This is a release from the United States Department of Justice.
