05/27/2010

Former UT Southwestern Physician Receives Huge Award

The desire to increase billing has gotten many a hospital into trouble. A common manifestation of that desire is allowing residents to operate on patients unsupervised. Dr. Larry Gentilello has an ongoing lawsuit involving exactly that allegation, and UTMB had to pay back a significant amount to the feds for Medicare fraud. This particular case offers a new wrinkle on the urge to bill.

Bellingham, Whatcom County Life, Travel, Books | Bellingham Herald
Nassar, a U.S. citizen, traced his problems to 2004, when UT Southwestern made Dr. Beth Levine chief of infectious disease medicine. She drove him to quit by 2006, Nassar said in a lawsuit he filed in 2008.

Levine wanted Nassar to bill insurers for some of his services, "which is illegal because Dr. Nassar's salary was fully funded by a federal grant," the lawsuit alleged. "If UTSW were allowed to bill for the salaried position of one of its professors that is fully funded by the taxpayers, then UTSW would be, as the saying goes, 'double dipping.'"


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May 27, 2010 6:25:12 AM | UT Southwestern, UTMB

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