NewYork-Presbyterian/Queens Hospital will pay $2.5 million to settle allegations that a former physician performed and billed for unnecessary procedures, according to a Sept. 14 statement from the U.S. attorney's office.
The settlement agreement addresses allegations that a former physician at the hospital performed services that were not medically necessary and billed federal health care programs for those services.
The services involved the replacement of implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) pulse generator batteries, which the physician repeatedly replaced before they reached their elective replacement interval. Such batteries were functioning normally, indicating that he subjected his patients to unneeded and risky surgical procedures. The hospital submitted claims for payment to federal healthcare programs for these procedures.
The physician's conduct was discovered as a result of an internal investigation conducted by the hospital.
The name of the physician was not released.