The exclusive provider of anesthesia services for Erlanger Health System said in sworn testimony that its anesthesiologists repeatedly raised concerns that surgeons were not complying with the hospital’s overlapping surgery policy.
Erlanger’s former chief information officer, Stephen Adams, and orthopedic surgeons Julie Adams and Scott Steinmann brought a federal whistleblower complaint against the health system in April 2021 under the False Claims Act and Tennessee Medicaid False Claims Act.
Their lawsuit alleges Erlanger’s physicians illegally billed government insurance for concurrent operations in which residents and interns completed surgeries alone without proper oversight or patient consent.
While evidence was being collected and reviewed in preparation for trial, it was revealed that an anesthesia provider, ACE, allegedly opposed Erlanger’s practices and did not conspire with the hospital, according to a Thursday motion to sever and dismiss.