A Florida dermatologist has agreed to pay $26.1 million to resolve allegations that he violated the False Claims Act by accepting illegal kickbacks from a pathology laboratory and by billing the Medicare program for medically unnecessary services. He also is excluded from treating patients and being paid under Medicare, Medicaid, and all other federal health care programs. The settlement, announced Feb. 11, is the largest ever with an individual under the False Claims Act in the Middle District of Florida and one of the largest with an individual under the act in U.S. history, the Justice Department said. Kickbacks and Medically Unnecessary Services The government alleged that in or around 1997, Steven J. Wasserman, M.D., practicing in Venice, Fla., entered into an illegal kickback arrangement with Tampa Pathology Laboratory (TPL) and Dr. José SuarezHoyos, a pathologist and the owner of TPL, in an effort to increase the lab’s referral business. Under that agreement, Wasserman allegedly sent biopsy specimens for Medicare beneficiaries to TPL for testing and diagnosis. In return, TPL allegedly provided him a diagnosis on a pathology report that included a signature line to make it appear to Medicare that he had performed the diagnostic work that TPL had…
