Palm Beach Dermatologist to Pay $18 Million to Settle False Claims Act Lawsuit

According to a Department of Justice announcement, Gary L. Marder, D.O., a physician residing in Palm Beach County and owner and operator of the Allergy, Dermatology & Skin Cancer Centers in Port St. Lucie and Okeechobee, and the United States of America have stipulated to a consent final judgment of over $18 million to settle False Claims Act allegations against Dr. Marder.  Co-defendant, Robert I. Kendall, M.D., a physician practicing in Coral Gables, has also agreed to pay the United States $250,000 to settle allegations that he violated the False Claims Act.

The allegations arose from a qui tam lawsuit filed by whistleblower Theodore A. Schiff, M.D., alleging that Dr. Marder billed federal health care programs for medically unnecessary biopsies and radiation therapy services, falsely diagnosing patients with cancer, performing unnecessary radiation treatments on patients, and illegally billing those biopsies and radiation treatments. The lawsuit further alleged that Dr. Kendall submitted false claims to federal and state healthcare programs for laboratory services tainted by kickbacks to, and improper financial relationships with, Dr. Marder. The United States intervened in the Civil Action on October 14, 2014, and filed its Complaint in Intervention on November 19, 2014.

In September 2016, the Court granted summary judgment in favor of the United States with respect to several key issues in the case, finding that Dr. Marder knowingly submitted false claims to Medicare by requesting reimbursement for services that he never actually performed or directly supervised due to his frequent absence from his medical clinics (including expansive periods of foreign travel) on days corresponding to over fifty percent of the payments that Dr. Marder received from Medicare. The Court further found that all Dr. Marder’s claims for medical physicist services submitted to Medicare since 2011 were false, and that Dr. Marder had actual knowledge that a physicist did not perform the corresponding services. The Court made no determination of liability against Dr. Kendall in this matter.

“Doctors who are more concerned with boosting their profits at the expense of taxpayer-funded health care programs than they are with patient safety will be held accountable,” said Shimon R. Richmond, HHS-OIG Miami Special Agent in Charge. “Working with our law enforcement partners, we will continue to protect the integrity of federal health care programs and the patients served by those programs.”