Columbia U. Will Pay $995,000 to Settle Medicare-Fraud Case

Columbia University has agreed to pay $995,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging that a doctor at an affiliated hospital defrauded the Medicare program by overbilling and by billing for unneeded tests, according to a news release issued by the U.S. Department of Justice. The lawsuit, filed under the False Claims Act, alleged that the doctor at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Erik Goluboff, an oncologist and former associate professor of clinical urology at Columbia, overbilled Medicare for urological procedures and billed for medically unnecessary tests. The lawsuit alleged that Columbia and Presbyterian were aware of the fraud and failed to stop it.