Firm settles false billing case for $35 million

FORT MYERS — The federal government settled a lawsuit against 21st Century Oncology for $34.7 million to resolve allegations the cancer-treatment firm billed for procedures that were not medically necessary.

“The United States Attorney's Office is committed to taking the steps necessary to protect Medicare, Tricare and other federal health care programs from fraud,” says U.S. Attorney Lee Bentley in a statement. “Health care providers may bill for new technologies only when they have been proven to be useful and when individual physicians and staff have been trained to use them properly.”

The settlement relates to 21st Century Oncology's use of a medical procedure called “gamma function” used to measure the exit dose radiating from a patient after receiving treatment. The federal government alleged the Fort Myers-based company improperly billed for this procedure despite serving no medically appropriate purpose.