Feds investigate hospitals' liver transplant programs

CHICAGO -- Federal investigators want to know if three Chicago hospitals falsified the condition of liver-transplant patients to move them up on a national donor list and submitted Medicare and Medicaid bills for unnecessary procedures, officials said.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is investigating Northwestern Memorial Hospital, the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center and the University of Chicago Hospitals, said David Krupnick, the department's Midwest regional inspector general.

Active investigation

He would not say how many patients or how much money was involved because the case is an active investigation.

Documents filed by the U.S. attorney's office show that investigators want to know if the hospitals submitted false claims of their patients' degree of sickness and "whether such false claims affected the mandated equitable distribution of livers available for transplant."

The hospitals say the questions were resolved in the late 1990s, and that their liver-transplant programs are being run properly.

"This issue stems from how some patients, very ill with liver disease in the late 1990s, may have been classified on liver transplant waiting lists," UIC spokesman Mark Rosati said.

"We cooperated fully with (United Network for Organ Sharing) in its review," Rosati said. "We are confident that our transplant program is administered properly in accordance with federal and state laws."

University of Chicago Medical Center spokesman John Easton said officials there feel the same. "This is all pretty ancient," Easton said.

Kelly Sullivan, public-relations director at Northwestern Memorial, said hospital officials have turned over pertinent documents and are "confident in our position" when the investigation ends.

"Each year, the federal government conducts hundreds of preliminary investigations," Sullivan said. "Northwestern Memorial has cooperated fully with this investigation."

The investigation came to light Friday when the federal prosecutor filed a request for the enforcement of a September 2001 subpoena issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The subpoena seeks records of audits, dating back to Jan. 1, 1995, done by the United Network for Organ Sharing, the nonprofit organization that allocates organs throughout the nation through a government contract.

According to the court documents, the network dealt out minor discipline in at least some of the cases cited in the audits.

If proven true, the allegations could result in civil or criminal penalties against the hospitals.