Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center (BSLMC), Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and Surgical Associates of Texas PA (SAT) have jointly agreed to pay $15 million to resolve claims they billed for concurrent heart surgeries in violation of Medicare teaching physician and informed consent regulations. BSLMC is a joint venture between CommonSpirit Health, a national hospital chain, and BCM, a medical school in Houston. BSLMC operates a teaching hospital, formerly known as St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, in its Medical Center. BCM employs teaching physicians and residents who perform services at BSLMC, including Dr. Joseph Coselli, 71, Houston, and Dr. Joseph Lamelas, 63, Miami, Florida. SAT is a medical practice group affiliated with various cardiothoracic surgeons, including Dr. David Ott, 77, Houston. The investigation began Aug. 7, 2019, upon the filing of a sealed qui tam lawsuit aka whistleblower complaint. The whistleblower alleged Coselli, Lamelas and Ott—three heart surgeons who performed at St. Luke’s—engaged in a regular practice of running two operating rooms at once and delegating key aspects of extremely complicated and risky heart surgeries to unqualified medical residents.
