The Justice Department has announced a $3.8 million settlement of False Claims Act allegations against Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia LLC, Physician Oncology Services Management Company LLC, RCOG Cancer Centers LLC, Physician Oncology Services L.P. and Frank A. Critz, M.D. (collectively, RCOG). The radiation oncology practice and its affiliates are located in Decatur, Georgia.
The allegations first came to light in two separate cases filed by two whistleblowers, a former doctor and a former employee who had both worked for RCOG. The two filed their cases under the qui tam provisions of the federal False Claims Act. That statute, sometimes called the Lincoln Law, allows individuals with knowledge of fraud against the government to file suit on the government’s behalf and share a portion of any recovery made in the case. The whistleblowers are also known as “relators.”
The whistleblowers alleged that RCOG overbilled Medicare for X-ray images of the site of the port where treatment was administered and for simulations that define radiation treatment fields and mark on a patient’s skin the precise area where radiation therapy is to be applied. In addition, the practice allegedly overbilled Medicare for physics consults or production of complete special consultative reports on individual patients and for unnecessary pre-plans sometimes ordered by Dr. Critz and never reviewed.
For their willingness to step forward and report their allegations of health care fraud against the government and the American taxpayers, the whistleblowers, Rebecca S. Tarlton, M.D. and R. Jeffrey Wertz, will receive $646,000 for their portion of the settlement.
Waters & Kraus is a national firm with highly skilled lawyers practicing qui tam litigation in four offices, including Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Baltimore. Our attorneys have decades of experience successfully representing whistleblowers in a variety of fraud cases. Contact us or call our attorneys at 800.226.9880 to learn more about our practice and how we can assist.
