UC Irvine Admits to Improper Medical Billing

UC Irvine improperly charged dying cancer patients and Medicare more than $55,000 for experimental drug treatments in 1995 and 1996, payments tied to a problem-plagued research project that was later shut down, university officials acknowledged Friday.

The billing problems were uncovered in a UC Irvine audit launched shortly after federal health officials began investigating reports of unauthorized research by the cancer laboratory’s doctors.

Of the 30 patients in the UC Irvine clinical trial, 18 were billed for experimental medication in violation of federal law. The university has refunded $24,700 to nine patients or their families, and returned $8,913 to Medicare. UC Irvine could not locate the remaining patients or their relatives, who are owed a total of $21,709.

“We’ve taken great steps to make sure this does not happen again,” said Mark Laret, executive director of the UC Irvine Medical Center. “We intend to do everything we can to operate with the greatest level of integrity, and to a follow federal regulations to the letter.”

The lab--at the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center--was padlocked in December 1996 after UC Irvine found its researchers engaged in unauthorized experiments and sloppy protocol, including the use of an unapproved drug on a Florida girl who had a brain tumor.

A UC Irvine internal inquiry also found that the researchers solicited $19,900 in donations from patients trying get into clinical trials, a practice that the university investigators called inappropriate and ethically suspect.

The UC Irvine Medical Center is switching to a centralized billing system to improve the university’s ability to monitor billing compliance by researchers, Laret said. All charges involving patients in clinical trials will require advance approval.