United States ex rel. Morgan v. Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center et al.

Working in concert with the federal government for five years, lawyers at AZA saw their whistleblower client receive $3 million of the $15 million settlement of a lawsuit alleging that Houston surgeons were letting unqualified trainees perform parts of heart surgeries while the surgeons billed for two or three concurrent surgeries.

The settlement is with Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, Baylor College of Medicine and Surgical Associates of Texas P.A. The government said it is the largest settlement on record for Medicare fraud over concurrent surgery claims.

“In short, the teaching physicians churned through as many cardiac surgeries as possible to generate revenue for Baylor, regulations be damned, and were rewarded with lavish compensation,” said the lawsuit filed by AZA.

That whistleblower lawsuit filed under the False Claims Act resulted in this government intervention and the June 2024 settlement over allegations of the massive number of false claims made to Medicare from 2013-2020.

Case Type: Healthcare and Litigation Plaintiff

Attorneys: Joe Ahmad, Nathan Campbell, and David Warden