Federal Prosecutors Probing 3 Chicago Liver Transplant Programs

The probe of practices at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, the University of Chicago Hospitals, and the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center came to light when the U.S. attorney's office filed a request for the enforcement of a September 2001 subpoena issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

David Krupnick, DHHS Midwest inspector general, confirmed the investigation but declined to say how many patients or how much money was involved.

The Chicago Sun-Times said the government is investigating whether the three hospitals listed patients as being in intensive-care units when they weren't sick enough to be there, and in doing so billed Medicare and Medicaid for unnecessary medical procedures.

Listing patients as being in intensive-care could have moved them up on the liver waiting list, giving them a higher priority for cadaver livers. Investigators want to know "whether such false claims affected the mandated equitable distribution of livers available for transplant," according to the documents.

"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," said UIC spokesman Mark Rosati. "We cooperated fully with UNOS in its review. We are confident that our transplant program is administered properly in accordance with federal and state laws."