Whistleblower brings allegations of Medicare fraud to light

A whistleblower helped federal prosecutors bring a fraud case against a Twin Cities dermatology chain with offices in Burnsville, Orono, Edina and St. Cloud.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Minneapolis announced on Friday, Dec. 1, that Skin Care Doctors and its CEO founder, Michael Ebertz, agreed to pay $850,000 to settle the case. The prosecutors had alleged the dermatology practice filed false Medicare claims between January 2008 and December 2015.

The whistleblower, Dr. Jeff Samuelson, worked with Washington, D.C.-based Employment Law Group and with Minneapolis attorney Susan Coler, along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Ann M. Bildtsen, to present their findings.

As a result of blowing the whistle, Samuelson no longer works with Skin Care Doctors. He now practices in California.

"Jeff took a tough stand against his boss, and was pushed out of the SCD practice as a result," said R. Scott Oswald, managing principal of The Employment Law Group. "He could have kept quiet and moved on, but instead he stood up for taxpayers and future SCD patients, achieving a measure of justice with the strongest whistleblower tool available for Medicare fraud - the False Claims Act. He's a model of medical ethics and a beacon for doctors and other medical professionals who witness wrongdoing by their colleagues."

Coler said Samuelson came forward like most whistleblowers out of a sense of right and wrong.

Under the False Claims Act, people can bring a lawsuit on behalf of the government for false claims and, if successful, will share in the recovery of lost tax dollars.

"Such whistleblowers bring fraud schemes to light that might otherwise go undetected," states the announcement from the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The announcement said the billing covered four areas - billing Medicare for free samples of a phototherapy drug, for upcoding office visits, for lesion removal procedures and for phototherapy services.

Minneapolis lawyer Anders Folk said the settlement allows his client, Skin Care Doctors, to focus on care for their patients and avoid the cost and uncertainty of litigation.

"In fact, as part of the agreement, Skin Care Doctors and Dr. Ebertz deny all of the allegations asserted by the relator and the government," Folk said.

A relator is a person who brings a case to bear and, in this case, refers to Samuelson.

Folk noted that the practice, including Ebertz, cooperated with the government throughout the investigation and that the company has served patients for 20 years.

Bildtsen said her office is committed to rectifying inflated billing to federal programs.

"Medicare is a public trust," she said. "This resolution against both the company and its CEO safeguards that trust and restores needed funds to Medicare."

The case was handled by the Civil Frauds Unit of the U.S. Attorney's Office, with assistance from the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.