A Kansas physician and Hutchinson (Kan.) Clinic are defendants in a False Claims Act case the federal government recently intervened in, according to the Great Bend Tribune.
The government alleges Mark Fesen, MD, and Hutchinson Clinic billed Medicare and Tricare for more than $30 million for medically unnecessary medications and treatments, including chemotherapy.
The 45-page federal complaint provides nine examples of patients who received unnecessary treatments.
“These patient examples are not isolated examples, but instead representative examples of the medically unnecessary services Fesen and Hutchinson Clinic repeatedly billed to Medicare and Tricare,” states the complaint. “This is supported by the clinic’s own internal audits that found widespread problems with Fesen’s chemotherapy regimens, and particularly his use of Rituxan.”
A clinical pharmacist who worked in Hutchinson Clinic’s oncology department from 2007-14 originally brought the allegations against Dr. Fesen and the clinic under the qui tam, or whistle-blower, provisions of the False Claims Act.
HENRY KOTULA 