A former Tacoma physician performed medically unnecessary spinal surgeries on veterans and then fraudulently billed the government for it, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday.
Now, CHI Franciscan Health, St. Joseph Medical Center and the surgeon are paying the government a total of $942,708 — twice the amount they billed for the surgeries.
The DOJ said it has resolved allegations against former orthopedic surgeon Kevin Schoenfelder, who will pay $197,054.
U.S. Attorney Tessa Gorman said unnecessary surgeries put patients at risk of medical complications.
"In this case we are concerned about protecting taxpayer funded health care, but even more concerned that patients may have needlessly suffered when enduring procedures that were more invasive than was necessary," Gorman said.
Neither Schoenfelder, the hospital nor CHI Franciscan admitted wrongdoing. Schoenfelder retired in 2018 and surrendered his physician license in 2019.
The settlement resolved a lawsuit filed under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act, which permit private parties known as relators to file suit on behalf of the government for false claims and to share in any recovery. In this case, the relator was Dr. Daniel Nehls, a Tacoma neurosurgeon. He will receive 22 percent of the payments to the government.
CHI resolved claims that the hospital billed for Schoenfelder's spinal surgeries at more spinal levels than necessary and medically unnecessary spinal fusions at St. Joseph Medical Center. Scheonfelder resolved claims pertaining to his performance of allegedly medically unnecessary spinal surgeries.
Between Jan. 1, 2013 and June 30, 2018, the surgeries were billed to government health programs including Medicare, TRICARE and Veterans Affairs.
"This settlement sends a message to doctors that patient safety and the integrity of our healthcare programs, including the Department of Defense's TRICARE program, are paramount," said Bryan Denny, a Department of Defense special agent.
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