RCOG to pay $3.8 Million to Settle False Claims Act Case

The Justice Department announced on April 3, 2012 that Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia LLC, a radiation oncology practice, and its affiliates RCOG Cancer Centers LLC, Physician Oncology Services Management Company LLC, Frank A. Critz, M.D. and Physician Oncology Services L.P. (jointly, RCOG) agreed to pay $3.8 million to settle claims that they violated the False Claims Act.  RCOG, located in Georgia, allegedly billed Medicare for medical treatment that they provided to prostate cancer patients in excess of those permitted by Medicare rules and for services that were not medically necessary.

There were two relators, or whistleblowers, involved in this civil settlement filed under the Qui Tam provisions of the False Claims Act. The complaints, which were filed separately by the two relators, were consolidated into the case captioned United States ex rel. R. Jeffrey Wertz and Rebecca S. Tarlton v. Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia, LLC, et al., Civil Action No. 1:08-CV-2244, pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.  The relators, R. Jeffrey Wertz and Rebecca S. Tarlton, M.D., will receive $646,000 as their share of the proceeds.

This case was investigated jointly by the Commercial Litigation Branch of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia, the FBI and HHS-OIG.

For more information, please see:
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/April/12-civ-426.html