Cancer care provider 21st Century Oncology Inc has reached a $34.7 million settlement with the U.S. government over the improper use of a procedure that measures radiation that leaves a patient's body after treatment, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Tuesday.
The Fort Meyers, Florida-based company, with offices in 16 states, performed and billed for procedures that were not medically necessary and in some cases improperly performed, the agency said.
Physicians and physicists who performed the procedure, known as "the Gamma function," were not properly trained to interpret or use the results, the Justice Department said.
The company billed federal healthcare program Medicaid for the procedure in cases where physicians did not review results until seven or more days after the patients' final radiation treatments, the department said. Bills were also issued when no results from the procedure were available due to technical failures with equipment, it added.
21st Century Oncology fully cooperated with government officials and settled the case without admitting wrongdoing, it said in a statement. No patients were harmed, nor was the issue of patient harm ever part of the dispute, the company said.
The practices came to light after a physicist who had worked for the company raised questions about the procedure.
21st Century Oncology said in a statement the procedure ensures that radiation doses are accurate throughout treatment and minimize the potential of over-dosing and under-dosing.
The case is among several recent challenges faced by the company. On March 4, 21st Century Oncology said it was investigating a breach of its computer network, but had no indication that patient information had been misused.
21st Century Oncology is notifying about 2.2 million of its current and former patients that certain information may have been copied and transferred, it said in a regulatory filing.
In December, 21st Century agreed to pay $19.75 million to resolve separate Justice Department claims that it billed federal healthcare programs for unnecessary laboratory tests, the department said.
(Reporting by Suzanne Barlyn; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Cynthia Osterman and Richard Chang)