Rose Cancer Center in Summit, Mississippi has allegedly been involved in serious Medicare and Medicaid fraud. Three individuals connected with the clinic—Dr. Meera Sachdeva,Monica Weeks, and Brittany McCoskey—have been accused of participating in a $15.1 million conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. The charges also included conspiracy and witness tampering.
Ms. McCoskey, a former office manager at the clinic, has pleaded guilty to the charge of giving false statements concerning health care matters, according to the Huffington Post. Specifically, Ms. Coskey has admitted submitting claims to Medicare and Medicaid that falsely claimed a doctor was present while certain procedures were performed.
The most dramatic and disturbing allegations, however, are that clinic employees watered down chemotherapy medications—at serious risk to patient care—and then billed Medicaid, Medicare and other health insurance providers for more chemotherapy medication than the patients actually received.
The Rose Cancer Center has other serious problems, however. In 2011, the Mississippi Department of Health closed down the clinic due to “unsafe infection control practices.” The action was prompted by the hospitalization of 11 Rose patients with an identical bacterial infection. A lawsuit also alleges that one former Rose patient died as a result of HIV he contracted at the cancer center.
Ms. McCoskey will be sentenced in August. The two other defendants are awaiting trial.
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.
