UPMC surgeon at center of false claims settlement steps down as department chair

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A surgeon who was at the center of a false claims investigation is no longer the chair of UPMC's Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery.

Dr. James Luketich will, however, continue as a surgeon at UPMC and remain on the faculty of the Pitt Medical School.

In a lawsuit, the U.S. government claimed Luketich regularly performed up to three complex surgical procedures at the same time, failing to participate in all of the "key and critical" portions of his surgeries and forcing patients to endure hours of unnecessary anesthesia time as he moved between operating rooms.

According to the United States' complaint, those practices violated statutes and regulations that prohibit "teaching physicians" like Luketich from billing the United States for "concurrent surgeries." Prosecutors claimed the violations were known by UPMC leadership and increased the risk of surgical complications to patients.   

Luketich, UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh Physicians agreed to pay $8.5 million to settle the lawsuit.

After the settlement, UPMC released a statement saying the allegations were made for some of Luketich's "most complicated, team-based surgical procedures" and that the parties agreed UPMC could seek clarity from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for how those surgeries should be billed.