Mass General Hospital To Pay $14.6M To Settle Lawsuit Over Overlapping Surgeries

BOSTON (CBS) -- Mass General Hospital will pay $14.6 million to settle a lawsuit claiming that trainees performed surgeries without proper supervision. The lawsuit also alleges that supervising surgeons were not present for those surgeries because they were working in another operating room.

The case came to fruition after a whistleblower alleged that some of the hospital's orthopedic surgeons engaged in overlapping surgeries that violated federal Medicare and state Medicaid rules.

The Boston Globe reported that it was Dr. Lisa Wollman, a former anesthesiologist at MGH, who brought on the lawsuit. She said five surgeons kept patients under anesthesia longer than necessary because they were performing surgeries in two operating rooms at once.

That apparently led to overbilling for anesthesia and left some surgeries improperly supervised.

The law firm that represented Dr. Wollman said she initially filed her case in 2015 and pursued it even after the government declined to be involved.

The hospital agreed to settle the suit, but still insists it met all legal requirements for overlapping surgeries.