Cincinnati Christ Hospital Pays $1.8 Million to Settle Medicare Whistleblower Lawsuit Alleging that a Doctor Signed Off on Vascular Tests without Reading the Tests

Cincinnati, Ohio’s Christ Hospital has agreed to pay $1.8 million to settle a False Claims Act Qui Tam suit filed by former Medical Director of Vascular Lab Services Peter Podore.

Podore alleged that one of the Hospital’s doctors, John Paul Ruyon, was not only signing off on vascular tests for as many as 8,000 patients without properly reading and reviewing the tests, but he was fraudulently charging Medicare for these tests.  When Podore alerted hospital administrators to Ruyon’s actions, they ignored his warnings.

Commenting on what prompted him to file a claim against Christ Hospital, Podore stated:

“Every hospital is going to have problem physicians, problem behavior… And every hospital has procedures to deal with these things. But my concern is that when a hospital elects to ignore their own internal procedures and in doing so puts patients at risk, that’s the problem that sort of forced me to file a claim”

As part of Podore’s reward for filing a False Claims Act Qui Tam suit, he will receive $286,000 of the $1.8 million settlement.

The Employment Law Group® law firm has an extensive nationwide whistleblower practice  representing employees who have been victims of retaliation.

Tagged: False Claims Act (FCA), Whistleblower Laws (Federal)