Lawsuit claims UPMC, doctors failed to get proper patient consent for procedures
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A federal lawsuit alleges health care giant UPMC and several doctors failed to get proper patient consent for surgeries and participation in clinical trials and then filed false insurance claims for the procedures.
The lawsuit’s plaintiffs include the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. A co-plaintiff, Diana Zaldonis, was a researcher at UPMC’s Cardiothoracic Transplantation division.
The lawsuit was filed in September but just unsealed last month. UPMC representatives could not immediately be reached for comment.
The allegations are levied against several cardiothoracic surgeons, who are accused of passing off the job of obtaining patient consent for medical procedures to medical residents, fellows, nurse practitioners and physicians assistants “in violation of federal and state law as well as UPMC policy.”
“These cardiothoracic surgeons often signed a consent form falsely certifying that they had explained to the patient all of the information in the consent form,” the lawsuit alleged, “when, in fact, they had not.”
Informed consent, in terms of the medical field, involves a physician laying out a procedure and possible consequences to a patient, who then acknowledges the risks and gives permission to move forward.
Zaldonis claims she was fired after she alerted the Institutional Review Board, an independent board that oversees research done on humans, to the falsely signed consent forms.
The lawsuit asks for the court to fine UPMC for damages to the HHS and CMS as well as to reinstate Zaldonis with back pay.