United States v. Space Coast Medical Associates, L.L.P.

94 F. Supp. 3d 1250, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 45062, 2015 WL 1456122
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Florida
DecidedFebruary 6, 2015
DocketCase No. 6:13-cv-1068-Orl-22TBS
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 94 F. Supp. 3d 1250 (United States v. Space Coast Medical Associates, L.L.P.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Space Coast Medical Associates, L.L.P., 94 F. Supp. 3d 1250, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 45062, 2015 WL 1456122 (M.D. Fla. 2015).

Opinion

ORDER

ANNE C. CONWAY, District Judge.

Plaintiffs Robert Parker and Thomas Scheer, qui tam relators (“Relators”), bring this suit against Defendants Space Coast Medical Associates, L.L.P., a group medical practice; its corporate partner, Brevard Hematology and Oncology Consultants-Levine, Zimm and Sprawls, M.D., P.A.1; and its radiation oncologist, Dr. Cynthia Jean Bryant, pursuant to the False Claims Acts of the United States2 and Florida3 (hereinafter collectively referred to as “the False Claims Act”).4 Defendants filed a motion to dismiss the case. Because the Second Amended Complaint does not set forth false statements that Defendants knowingly submitted to the government, the motion must be granted. However, Relators will be allowed an opportunity to replead their claims.

I. Background5

Relators sue Defendants under the False Claims Act, alleging problems with [1253]*1253Defendants’ provision of and billing the government for radiation therapy services. (Second Am. Compl., Doc. 61). Defendants administer radiation therapy6 at their offices in Titusville, Florida and Vi-era, Florida. (Id. ¶ 49). Dr. Bryant is the only radiation oncologist for the medical practice and “is responsible for supervising Defendants’ entire radiation therapy practice at the Titusville and Viera Offices,” with “[m]any radiation therapy procedures requir[ing] her direct supervision.” (Id. ¶ 50). Relator Parker was the lead radiation therapist at Defendants’ Viera office from June 2011 until October 2013. (Id. ¶¶ 6 & 53). Relator Scheer briefly substituted for Dr. Bryant as a locum tenens physician7 during July 2013 at both the Titusville and Viera offices. (Id. ¶ 7).

Relators allege that Defendants have violated the False Claims Act based on several problems with their procedures for providing and billing government programs for radiation therapies.8 These allegations are detailed in the subsections below.

A. Verification

Relators allege that “Dr. Bryant routinely fails to verify radiation treatment plans prior to Defendants’ delivery of radiation treatment on cancer patients,” (id. ¶ 79), a violation of a local coverage determination (“LCD”)9 which, according to Relators, mandates that “development of a radiation treatment plan by Dr. Bryant is a prerequisite” to the radiation therapy provided, (id. ¶ 84). In other words, Rela-tors allege that Defendants violated the False Claims Act by providing radiation treatment contrary to an LCD that requires “the involvement of a radiation oncologist ... throughout the provision” of the treatment. (Id. ¶ 82).

Specifically, Relators allege that a therapist for Defendants “emailed Dr. Bryant a list of patients that were ‘currently under [1254]*1254treatment with unapproved Radiation Treatment Plans[,]’ ” and that Dr. Bryant responded by stating that “she prefers to ‘just go in and approve all the plans at once[.]’ ” (Id. ¶ 80 (alterations in original)). Relators allege that a specific Medicare patient, “Patient C,” was on that list and undergoing radiation therapy and that an LCD required a radiation oncologist’s involvement throughout provision of that therapy. (See id. ¶¶ 81-82). Thus, Rela-tors allege that “all claim forms submitted to the Government Healthcare Programs for radiation treatments [sic] plans prior to Dr. Bryant’s approval are fraudulent because such plans were not developed or supervised by Dr. Bryant.” (Id. ¶ 86; see also id. ¶ 88).

B. Quality Assurance Evaluations

Relators also allege that “Defendants’ medical physicist commonly fails to perform quality assurance evaluations on cancer patients prior to the delivery of serious radiation treatment,” (id. ¶ 91), a prerequisite to submitting claim forms for some radiation treatments under an LCD, (id. ¶ 95). Relators reference a specific email in which a medical physicist stated, “ ‘[Patient N] was treated before I analyzed his [quality assurance evaluation]. This shouldn’t happen.... I’ve been letting a few things slide because we’ve been busy, but this is where I draw the line.’ ” (Id. ¶ 92 (first alteration in original)). Relators allege that Defendants violated the False Claims Act, as evidenced by this email, because quality assurance evaluations were not done for all patients.10

C. Lack of Supervision

Relators next allege that approximately “50% of all radiation therapy treatment procedures are performed when there is no radiation oncologist present in the facility.” (Id. ¶ 101). Though Defendants have only one radiation oncologist for the entire practice, which consists of two offices, (id. ¶ 50), “Defendants’ standard practice is to simultaneously engage in radiation therapy at both locations. Defendants generally schedule cancer patients for radiation therapy from 8:30 am to 5:15 pm at the Titusville Office and 9:00 am to 5:30 pm at the Viera Office, Monday through Friday,” (id. ¶ 51). According to Relators, this violates a “requirement that radiation therapy services be directly supervised by a physician that is immediately available to provide assistance and direction throughout the time the radiation therapy procedure is being performed.” (id. ¶ 104; see also id. ¶¶ 10508 (citing the Code of Federal Regulations and the Medicare Benefit Policy Manual)). Rela-tors provide patient pseudonyms and the dates and locations of treatment as examples of bills that were submitted for unsupervised radiation treatment. (Id. ¶¶ 117, 118, 129, & 130). It is Defendants’ policy to use a different billing code when Dr. Bryant is not present at the treatment, (id. ¶¶ 124 & 125), and Relators argue that this is evidence that Defendants billed for procedures in which they failed to comply with the regulations, (see id. ¶ 126).

D.Specific Billing Allegations

Based on their personal knowledge, Re-lators also make allegations regarding Defendants’ billing practices. (Id. ¶¶ 131 & 134). Relator Parker was the lead radiation therapist at the Viera office, (id. ¶ 138), while Relator Scheer reviewed Dr. [1255]*1255Bryant’s charts and schedules as a locum tenens physician in July 2013, (id. ¶¶ 7, 131-32).

Defendants’ billing operated in a two-part system, with practitioners entering billing codes that were imported into a billing system for eventual final processing and submission. (See id. ¶ 135). Relator Parker was one of two people who “were responsible for reviewing and approving claims to be submitted to the government prior to forwarding the claims to [the billing coordinator] for final processing and submission using the cloud-based Centricity billing system.” (Id. ¶ 138). The billing coordinator would then submit the claims to the government healthcare programs. (Id. ¶ 139). Relator Parker estimates that 80 percent of Defendants’ patients of a particular type of radiation therapy utilized government programs for their primary healthcare coverage. (Id. ¶ 140).

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Bluebook (online)
94 F. Supp. 3d 1250, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 45062, 2015 WL 1456122, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-space-coast-medical-associates-llp-flmd-2015.