https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2024/06/25/baylor-college-of-medicine-settlement/74208300007/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2024/06/25/b

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2024/06/25/baylor-college-of-medicine-settlement/74208300007/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2024/06/25/baylor... In Texas, three hospitals (Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center (BSLMC), Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and Surgical Associates of Texas P.A. (SAT)) agreed to pay $15m as part of a settlement with the DOJ. These doctors/surgeons were booked for multiple simultaneous procedures that they could not have possibly conducted, even though they recorded things to make it look like they conducted all the surgeries. In reality many procedures were performed by unqualified residents and other caretakers and not who the patient was told would be performing the procedure. > To make it seem as if the teaching physicians were present during the "entire" operation, they would lie on medical records, the court filings say. The medical staff also would not tell patients that the surgeon planned on leaving the room to perform another operation, the documents continued. This only came out because of a whistleblower, and because the DOJ pursued it. It is nearly impossible for a patient to know if they are wronged or harmed this way because they are put under for these procedures, and because friends/family are typically not allowed to observe or record anything (likely to prevent accountability). And then there’s the cost of lawsuits, the stress, and limitations under law (like tort reform in Texas) - it’s just lucky that this was pursued by a government agency (DOJ). > Under the False Claims Act, the private whistleblower who reported the allegations will receive over $3 million from the settlement, the Justice Department said. We need more incentives like this, but we also need greater penalties and jail time for the practitioners and literally everyone who knew. They should be investigating who was in the room, what was recorded in logs, and who accessed records, and go after all of them. Right now, this settlement achieves nothing. Some articles claimed that these hospitals made more than $150 million off these procedures for which they are settling the lawsuit for just $15 million.