Whistle-Blowers to Split $8.1 Million

The two whistle-blowers who reported that alleged unnecessary heart surgeries were performed at Redding Medical Center in Northern California will receive $8.1 million, the federal government announced Wednesday.

The award will be paid to Father John Corapi, 56, a Catholic priest who lives in Montana, and Joseph Zerga, 61, a Las Vegas accountant. The payout comes from a $54-million settlement reached in August with the hospital’s owner, Santa Barbara-based Tenet Healthcare Corp., and the government.

“We didn’t know we were whistle-blowers, we just wanted to stop what was going on. If we had done nothing, we would have run the risk of other people getting their chests cracked open for nothing,” Zerga said Wednesday. “The FBI and Department of Justice jumped on this immediately.”

Corapi was traveling and could not be reached for comment.

Zerga and Corapi’s “willingness to blow the whistle on fraud resulted in our putting a stop to the surgeries and recovering $54 million from the defendants,” said Michael A. Hirst, assistant U.S. attorney in Sacramento.

After a government investigation last summer, Tenet Healthcare, California’s largest hospital chain, agreed to settle the government’s allegations that two doctors at its Redding hospital performed unnecessary heart surgeries. In the settlement, Tenet and the Redding hospital did not admit any wrongdoing.

In June 2002, Corapi was seen by Dr. Chae H. Moon in Redding, who recommended he undergo triple bypass surgery. Corapi then called to seek the advice of Zerga, whom he had known since college.

Because Zerga’s girlfriend was a nurse in Las Vegas, Corapi decided to have the surgery there. However, several cardiologists in Las Vegas told Corapi there was no need for bypass surgery.

Zerga first reported the alleged fraud to the FBI. In October 2002, federal agents raided the Redding hospital. The next month, Corapi and Zerga filed, under seal, a False Claims Act complaint against Tenet, Redding Medical Center and the physicians involved in the alleged fraud.

Tenet and Redding Medical Center still face about 100 lawsuits filed by individuals who claim they, or their relatives, were victims of needless cardiac procedures.