HELENA — The U.S. Department of Justice announced a $10.8 million settlement with St. Peter’s Health in Helena to resolve an alleged violation of the False Claims Act involving former employee Dr. Thomas Weiner, and a federal civil complaint has also been filed against Dr. Weiner by the DOJ.
The settlement agreement says St. Peter’s submitted false claims for payments to federal health care programs — including Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE — relating to services performed and referred by Dr. Weiner.
The government alleged that between Jan. 1, 2015, and Dec. 31, 2020, St. Peter’s, relying on Dr. Weiner’s documentation and certification, submitted claims that were determined to be false. Those claims include office visits coded at a higher level of service than what was performed.
The government further alleges that St. Peter’s compensated Dr. Weiner with a salary based on those false claims, relying again on Dr. Weiner’s reporting, which caused his salary to be inconsistent with fair market value.
Dr. Weiner had worked as director of St. Peter's Health Cancer Treatment Center. In late 2020, he was dismissed from the hospital following several investigations by St. Peter’s into allegations of harming patients.
In response, Dr. Weiner filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the organization alleging he had been terminated due to his opposition to the St. Peter’s CEO.
In Aug. 2023, a Montana District Court judge ruled in favor of St. Peter’s Health regarding the termination of Dr. Weiner.
On Monday, the DOJ filed a civil complaint against Dr. Weiner alleging false health care claims and improper prescribing of controlled substances.
Federal attorneys allege Dr. Weiner used his position as the chief medical oncologist at St. Peter’s Cancer Treatment Center to order medically unnecessary treatment and knowingly falsified records to double bill for patient office visits as an effort to increase his personal income.
Dr. Weiner is further accused of issuing numerous prescriptions for Schedule II controlled substances – including hydrocodone, morphine, and fentanyl – to multiple non-cancer patients that were not for a legitimate medical purpose and outside the usual course of professional practice.
Click here to read the full complaint (PDF).
St. Peter’s is credited in the DOJ settlement for voluntarily self-disclosing the misconduct.
“We believe this to be an isolated situation,” said St. Peter’s Health Chief Executive Officer Wade Johnson, FACHE. “Acting with integrity is important to us, so the decision to self-report in 2020 was made without hesitation.”
The DOJ also notes that St. Peter’s disclosed the results of an internal investigation, disclosed documents beyond existing business practices and legal requirements, made officers and employees available for interviews and enhanced its corporate compliance program.
The total amount St. Peter’s will pay in the settlement is $10,844,201.
Johnson acknowledged this is a significant financial settlement for St. Peter’s and will be paid out of reserves with no donor funds used. The organization says is focused on moving forward and will continue to invest in its people and the community.
“St. Peter’s is ultimately responsible for maintaining compliance with federal law, and our team has worked hard to ensure we have a much stronger compliance program in place today,” said Johnson.
“One of the purposes of the False Claims Act is to protect the American taxpayer from paying for false claims submitted by health care providers to federal health care programs, We take these allegations seriously which is why I am pleased we obtained this settlement agreement that returns almost $11 million to the United States,” U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich said. “Our health care providers simply must submit accurate claims when billing these taxpayer-supported federal health care programs for services. This settlement would not have been possible without the cooperation of St. Peter’s Health, who voluntarily disclosed the misconduct and cooperated with federal investigators to identify the problem and amount of false billing.”
