Judge issues secret ruling.Byline: Tim Christie The Register-Guard A U.S. District judge has issued a secret ruling on whether PeaceHealth has to turn over a legal file to federal authorities who are investigating four Eugene heart surgeons suspected of defrauding Medicare and Medicaid Medicare and Medicaid U.S. government programs in effect since 1966. Medicare covers most people 65 or older and those with long-term disabilities. Part A, a hospital insurance plan, also pays for home health visits and hospice care. . Judge Anna Brown filed her opinion and order last week in U.S. District Court in Portland, but it is a "sealed document," her courtroom deputy, Steve Minetto, said. At issue is who gets possession of a legal file created on behalf of the heart surgeons when they were an independent practice. PeaceHealth, the parent corporation of Sacred Heart Medical Center Sacred Heart Medical Center may refer to: In the United States:
Sometime before they sold their practice, the doctors - David Duke David Ernest Duke is a former Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, a candidate in presidential primaries for both the Democratic and Republican parties, and former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. , Stanley Baldwin, Warren Glover and the now-retired Richard Hicks - hired a Boston lawyer, Thomas Crane In 1810 Lieutenant Thomas Crane, an officer of the 73rd Regiment, was appointed caretaker commandant of Norfolk Island during the final evacuation of the first convict settlement. The British government regarded the island as too isolated and costly to maintain. , who specializes in defending and advising doctors in health care fraud and abuse cases. In March 2005, federal agents raided the doctors' office and seized their computers and files. In August 2005, lawyers for PeaceHealth notified the federal authorities that they had found a copy of a file created by Crane, and that Crane had provided legal advice to the doctors regarding billing Medicare for assistants at surgery, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. court documents. PeaceHealth lawyers said they were willing to waive attorney-client privilege In the law of evidence, a client's privilege to refuse to disclose, and to prevent any other person from disclosing, confidential communications between the client and his or her attorney. and turn the file over to the government. But lawyers for the doctors objected, saying that privilege remained in effect. PeaceHealth lawyers then said they would not turn over the file until the doctors withdrew their objections or until a judge ordered them to do so. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Nesler said Friday that he could not comment on the case. Lawyers for the doctors and for PeaceHealth did not return phone calls. Federal agents, joined by the state Department of Justice's Medicaid Fraud Medicaid fraud The fraudulent billing of Medicaid by physicians or other health care providers, especially international medical graduates and psychiatrists. See Medicaid. Unit, have been conducting a civil and criminal investigation into the doctors since August 2003. In court filings, investigators allege that the doctors submitted false billing False billing is a fraudulent act of invoicing or otherwise requesting funds from an individual or firm without showing obligation to pay. Such notices are often sent to owners of domain names, purporting to be legitimate renewal notices, although not originating from the owner's claims to the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs before they sold their practice to PeaceHealth. The central allegation, according to an affidavit filed in March by a federal investigator, is that the doctors billed Medicare and Medicaid for surgeries in which a single doctor would be listed as the lead surgeon on one operation and as the assisting surgeon on a second operation going on at the same time. Or a single doctor would be shown assisting multiple surgeries that were happening at the same time. For example, on March 30, 2000, the doctors' records show that Baldwin was the primary surgeon and Glover was the assistant on a case that began at 8:11 a.m., and that Baldwin was the assistant on a case led by Glover that began at 8:35 a.m. in a different operating room operating room n. Abbr. OR A room equipped for performing surgical operations. . Medicare regulations specifically prohibit doctors from billing for assisting more than one surgery at a time. No charges have been filed. The parties have tried, without success, to reach a settlement in talks mediated by U.S. 9th Circuit Court Judge Edward Leavy. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion