Baylor College pays to settle allegations its top surgeons performed concurrent heart surgeries

The prestigious Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, has agreed to pay into a $15m settlement to resolve US government allegations that three of its top cardiovascular surgeons ran two and sometimes even three simultaneous heart operations in different theatres to increase their billing.1

The surgeons, Joseph Coselli, 71, Joseph Lamelas, 63, and David Ott, 77, often left patients in the hands of resident doctors and fellows at critical moments when they were connected to bypass machines, during highly complex and risky operations, the government alleged. They failed to designate backup surgeons or hold surgical timeouts, a key step in which operating room staff stop to review potential errors and risks, US attorneys said. Patients were not told that their designated surgeon would be absent for part of the operation.

The three surgeons repeatedly signed Medicare billing paperwork affirming that they had been present throughout. This broke Medicare rules on presence of physicians, said US attorney Alamdar Hamdani, “that no physician—no …