Doctor agrees to $1M settlement

FORT MYERS — Urologist David Spellberg has agreed to pay $1.05 million to settle allegations of ordering unnecessary laboratory tests that were reimbursed by federal health care programs.

According to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's office, Spellberg worked for Naples Urology Associates, which was a division of 21st Century Oncology, a cancer-treatment company based in Fort Myers.

Spellberg became an employee of 21st Century in January 2010 and began referring bladder cancer tests to a laboratory owned by 21st Century. Medicare doesn't consider such a test necessary unless it's used to monitor for tumor reoccurrence of if the doctor suspects bladder cancer. The settlement resolves allegations that Spellberg submitted medically unnecessary bladder cancer tests to Medicare and Tricare, two federal medical insurance programs.