Complaint Review: UT Southwestern Medical Center - Dallas Texas

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School (UT Southwestern) in Dallas is under investigation for billing fraud. It has a two-tiered system of health care displayed at its two primary teaching hospitals. One is a public hospital where 85% of the patients are poor and non-white, and don't have commercial insurance (55% Medicaid). The other is segregated into an almost all-white hospital of patients with private insurance. 

The poor patients are used as, "practice" by students and residents who practice operations on them. They don't even inform patients and obtain their consent to undergo surgery. Even though the faculty are generally not present, and haven't ever seen the patient to confirm the need for surgery, and do not even participate in the surgery, the faculty bill Medicare and Medicaid as if they were present. This constitutes Medicare and Medicaid fraud.

The President of the University, Dr. Daniel Podolsky is aware of this. The Dean Dr. Gregory Fitz was involved in a Federal Civil Rights Case where he was found in federal court to have discriminated against a faculty member because of skin color and ethnicity. Dr. Ron Anderson the CEO of the hospital for indigent patients actually testified that he has no problems with students of surgery taking patients to the operating room and cutting off the legs without a member of the hospital medical staff (faculty or attending physician) being present, or ever having laid their eyes on the patient. 

A video showing him making this statement can be found right here: 

http://http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LirGs9dWYOM

The federal government intervened after a number of newly hired surgeons couldn't effect changes in these practices and reported them. UT Southwestern and Parkland viciously retaliated and forced all of these doctors out, leaving the hospital so short staffed with surgeons that residents were being forced to take call as the attending, and patients were being hurt and killed.

This was messy because there was a bond vote before the citizens for nearly $900 million to build a new hospital. If the citizens new that health care at UT Southwestern and Parkland was in many respects medieval and that the government was threatening to close it down, there is no way the citizen's would pass the bond vote.

Nevertheless, the federal government informed the CEO that, "these deficiencies have been determined to be of such a serious nature as to substantially limit your hospital's capacity to render adequate care...Your corrective action must be effective to halt potential termination action against your hospital."

This letter from the federal government to UT Southwestern - Parkland can be seen here: (((link redacted)))

The federal government then actually did decide to expel them from participating in Medicare and Medicaid, which accounts for 60% of the hospital's reimbursement. That effectively would result in closure of the facility, and no chance of passage of the bond vote.

The letter from CMS indicating that they are no longer "deemed" eligible to participate in Medicare and Medicaid is an internal CMS document where they gave their staff "talking points" for explaining this to the press. It can be seen here: (((link redacted)))

UT Southwestern and Parkland somehow managed to keep all of this from the press for over a year through a series of closed door meetings, essentially taking advantage of both patients and the community by hiding billing fraud, and performing operations on patients without their permission or consent.

Since that time, UT Southwestern and Parkland have not been held accountable. They have paid roughly $10,000,000 in attorneys' fees to tie up the investigation into these actions in various courts, including the Texas Supreme Court. However, the media eventually found out, and has published a series of investigative reports corroborating the above, most of it on the front page.

However, they will continue to "rip-off" the community until they are go before the courts for a trial on the merits, an event they are spending many millions of dollars to avoid.

 CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.