Doctors Agree to Settlement in Heart Surgery Fraud Case

By Brittany Golledge

Published on November 18, 2005

Three surgeons have agreed to pay more than three million dollars between them as part of a large medical malpractice settlement awarded to Redding Medical Center patients who claim the doctors performed unnecessary heart surgeries.

The doctors, Fidel Realyvasquez, Chae Moon, and Kent Brusett, still face a civil lawsuit brought by more than 600 patients who claim that in 2002, the surgeons were running what amounted to a surgery mill, performing cardiac catheterizations and bypass surgeries that were not medically necessary. As part of the settlement agreement, the doctors have agreed to authorize their insurance companies to pay out more than 20 million dollars to try to settle the lawsuits before they are brought to court next week.

The former owner of Redding Medical Center, Tenet Healthcare Corp., has also agreed to pay out more than five million dollars to settle charges that they defrauded state and federal health programs that footed the bill for the unnecessary surgeries. The five million follows a $54 million settlement paid out in 2004 that reflected the cost of the unnecessary surgeries, and another $395 million in 2004 to settle hundreds of lawsuits filed against the center.

As part of the settlement agreement, the doctors will not face criminal charges for billing state and federal agencies for the surgeries. Doctors Moon and Realyvasquez have agreed to cease performing heart surgery on Medicare and Medi-Cal patients. All three doctors will likely face investigation by the medical board.

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