It was essentially an office pool to determine which doctor could get the most bonuses.
The bet centered around patients who didn’t know if they had cancer.
The winner? Dr. Meir Daller of Gulfstream Urology.
“Dr. Daller was the No. 1 referring physician in the United States,” said Kyle S. Cohen, assistant U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Florida. “It’s hard to say exactly, but over 13,000 [patients].”
Daller was one of four Southwest Florida doctors participating in excessive medical testing while working for Fort Myers-based 21st Century Oncology, federal prosecutors said.
Company doctors billed Medicare and Tricare for expensive and unnecessary bladder cancer tests that could total over $30,000 in reimbursements per case. A 2013 whistleblower suit, filed by employment attorney Ben Yormak, alleged the tests were rarely effective.