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Temple University settles with feds in multi-million dollar hospital fraud schemes

Temple University has agreed to pay the U.S. government $412,474 to settles claims stemming from two fraud schemes by a hospital department chairman and a trio of plastic surgeons that netted more than $4.5 million. Dr. Joseph J. Kubacki, former Chairman of Temple’s Ophthalmology Department, was convicted in August on 73 counts of health care fraud, 73 counts of making false statements, and four counts of wire fraud. Kubacki, also a professor at the medical school and an attending physician at Temple University Hospital, billed federal agencies more than $1.5 million claiming he had performed services at the hospital performed by residents when he wasn’t there.

Temple University has agreed to pay the U.S. government $412,474 to settles claims stemming from two fraud schemes by a hospital department chairman and a trio of plastic surgeons that netted more than $4.5 million.

Dr. Joseph J. Kubacki, former Chairman of Temple's Ophthalmology Department, was convicted in August on 73 counts of health care fraud, 73 counts of making false statements, and four counts of wire fraud. Kubacki, also a professor at the medical school and an attending physician at Temple University Hospital, billed federal agencies more than $1.5 million claiming he had performed services at the hospital performed by residents when he wasn't there.

Temple, which discovered the discrepancies, fired Kubacki in Nov. 2007 and presented evidence to the U.S. Attorney's office soon after, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Kubacki has agreed to return $676,100 to the government.

Temple's settlement includes a similar case also discovered in 2007 involving three plastic surgeons. Doctors Amithaba Mitra, Rhoda Powell and Julia Spears left Temple after the school reported its findings to federal officials. The U.S. Attorney's office said Mitra, Powell and Spears were attending physicians at the hospital but were not present for critical portions of the services for which they submitted claims.