Many elderly patients on Medicare who visited Dr. Gary Marder came to the dermatologist concerned about blotches on their skin.

Despite these patients having irritated skin, warts or other common skin conditions, he allegedly diagnosed them all with skin cancer and charged their insurance for expensive treatments and procedures, according to the Medicare abuse lawsuit filed by a whistleblower.

Medicare Abuse Lawsuit Allegations

The whistleblower accused Dr. Marder of defrauding the government by billing Medicare and Tricare, a federal health program serving active and retired military families.

The Medicare abuse lawsuit stated that from January 2008 until May 2014, Marder built the two federal health programs for more than $49 million.

These charges included overbilling the two programs by charging patients for biopsies and treatments deemed unnecessary.

These procedures and treatments were either not actually rendered, or they were rendered by improperly qualified physicians assistants who were not properly supervised to provide the interventions.

The whistleblower even stated that the doctor was out of the country many times the patients were supposedly treated.

In the medicare abuse lawsuit, the judge upheld many of the allegations brought forth by the whistleblower. The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed to the public.

Many settlements such as this one end with the accused person denying any wrongdoing but agreeing to the settlement to avoid further uncertainty, time and costs associated with continued litigation.

According to Dr. Marder’s website, he had claimed to have cured “over 45,000 nonmelanoma skin cancers with radiation therapy for the past 30 years.”

He is certified by the American Osteopathic Board of dermatology, and the whistleblower alleged that Dr. Marder lacked the necessary training to be able to perform radiation oncology on his patients.

This medicare abuse whistleblower lawsuit Dr. Marder has agreed to settle is a civil case, but there is a criminal investigation currently underway that is being conducted by the FBI.

The whistleblower lawsuit against Dr. Marder originally developed from a complaint filed by another dermatologist who works in the area.

This doctor saw many patients who he believed were misdiagnosed by Dr. Marder, investigated his suspicions and hired an attorney under the federal whistleblower’s act.

The doctor who acted as a whistleblower will receive between 15 and 25 percent of the settlement agreement for his help in exposing government fraud.

According to the medical abuse lawsuit, the whistleblower stated that Dr. Marder told his physician assistants that they needed to perform up to 50 biopsies a day to increase his billings to Medicare and Tricare.

The whistleblower stated that if the physician assistants met the quota, they would be eligible for cash bonuses of up to $10,000.

Dr. Marder’s physician assistants stated that they did not receive proper training to perform the radiation treatments.

According to a former physician assistant, “Dr. Marder instructed that every patient was to receive two radiation treatments a day to each lesion for 20 days. The treatment was the same for every lesion on every patient… The radiation dosage administered by the machine at each location was preset.”

Not only did the physician assistants perform the work, Dr. Marder allegedly billed Medicare at a higher rate that physicians receive for treating such patients.

The whistleblower accused Dr. Marder of conspiring with pathologist Dr. Robert Kendall. According to an FBI agent, Dr. Marder engaged in a kickback scheme with the pathologist.

Dr. Marder allegedly sent 35,000 patient samples to Dr. Kendall. Dr. Kendall allowed Dr. Marder to bill Medicare for the specimens, and allegedly paid Dr. Kendall an annual salary of $120,000, according to the Medicare abuse lawsuit.

Doctor’s Billing Practices Questioned

Apparently, this is not Dr. Marder’s first time for having his billing practices called into question. The Florida Word of Osteopathic Medicine fined Dr. Marder $2500 for his allegedly involvement in fraudulently billing private insurers in three different cases.

Not only did the Medicare billings defraud the government, his patients were also negatively impacted by his allegedly improper practices. Many patients did not have skin cancer, yet were given inappropriate medical treatments.

“This radiation therapy not only damages the cancer cells present in the body, but it also has a damaging effect on healthy tissue which surround the tumor being treated,” the whistleblower attorney stated.