MultiCare: The Warnings That Did Not Stop the Surgeries

The MultiCare unnecessary surgeries complaint led to a $3,728,000 settlement over allegations that the hospital system ignored warnings about its neurosurgeon and billed public health programs for medically unnecessary spinal procedures. Staff had raised concerns from inside the operating room. According to the Justice Department, one physician assistant walked out during surgery and another resigned rather than continue working with the surgeon. The hospital kept allowing him to operate.

MultiCare Health System is based in Tacoma and operates Deaconess Hospital and Rockwood Clinic in Spokane. The settlement, announced on February 4, 2026, concerned procedures performed at Deaconess between 2019 and 2021. The Justice Department reported that MultiCare made factual admissions in the settlement and described how staff complaints, federal warnings and the hospital’s decisions connected to the billing.

What the MultiCare Unnecessary Surgeries Complaint Alleged

A former patient brought the qui tam case, and the United States and Washington joined it. Their January 26, 2024 complaint alleged that MultiCare knew its neurosurgeon was falsifying diagnoses, performing unnecessary or overly extensive operations, and billing for services he had not performed. MultiCare hired the surgeon, allowed the operations to continue and sought payment from government health care programs.

The government’s complaint also alleged procedures below the applicable standard of care and false records used to support the claims.

The Hospital Heard From Its Own Operating Room

MultiCare allegedly knew about concerns over the surgeon’s judgment before he began operating at Deaconess. He had previously worked at Providence St. Mary’s Medical Center in Walla Walla and resigned amid allegations of unnecessary surgery, patient harm and falsified diagnoses. According to the government complaint announcement, MultiCare learned of concerns during hiring but regarded him as a “workhorse” and let him begin treating patients and operating in July 2019.

According to the Justice Department, a physician assistant left the operating room out of fear that a patient would be harmed and immediately complained to management. Another physician assistant raised safety concerns and resigned rather than keep assisting the surgeon. Both warnings reached management within months of his arrival.

Those were people assigned to help perform the operations, telling the hospital they feared what was happening in the room. The department reported that MultiCare did not stop or curtail the surgeries in response.

Federal investigators then delivered another warning. The complaint alleged that the U.S. Attorney’s Office told MultiCare in February 2020 that it was investigating patient harm, false diagnoses and unnecessary operations. The settlement announcement adds that investigators supplied documents and evidence. MultiCare continued allowing the surgeon to operate until Washington’s Department of Health restricted his ability to perform spinal surgery in March 2021.

How the Surgery Became a Hospital Claim

The complaint alleged that MultiCare sought and received payment for the disputed procedures from Medicare, Washington Medicaid, VA Community Care, TRICARE and the Federal Employee Health Benefits program. The alleged false information concerned the diagnosis, whether an operation was needed, how much surgery was justified and whether the billed work had actually been performed. In the government’s account, patients bore the unnecessary operations and taxpayers paid the hospital for them.

For a device insider, the hospital payment matters because Medicare ordinarily includes the implant cost in its payment for the procedure. A surgeon may strongly influence the implant choice, while the hospital approves the product and buys it. The choice, purchase and government claim sit in different parts of the same transaction.

For an insider who knows the spinal hardware, the operation is the bridge to the hospital bill. An implant record may help show what went into the patient. An operative note describes what the surgeon says happened. The payment claim shows what the hospital asked the program to fund. We connect those accounts with the concerns that reached management and the decisions that followed them.

More Surgery, More Complex Surgery, More Pay

MultiCare’s alleged incentive arrangement rewarded both surgical volume and complexity. The complaint announcement says the hospital recognized the surgeon’s high volume and substantial revenue in October 2019 and placed him on a compensation structure under which more operations and more complex operations meant more pay.

Staff were raising concerns about patient safety while the compensation arrangement rewarded more of the work.

The same incentive appeared at Providence Health & Services Washington, which agreed to a separate $22,690,458 settlement in April 2022 over neurosurgery at Providence St. Mary’s, a larger settlement than MultiCare’s. Providence paid neurosurgeons through a productivity metric that rewarded more procedures of greater complexity. It admitted that medical personnel had raised concerns about inappropriate surgical candidates, patient safety and inadequate documentation, with further concerns about one surgeon’s exaggerated diagnoses and overly extensive operations.

The parallel is the institution’s response to people who knew the work. Compensation records show what the hospital rewarded. Staff reports show what it had been told about the consequences.

What Kind of Proof Is Needed to Be a Whistleblower?

For unnecessary spinal surgery allegations, useful evidence connects the clinical records, the hospital’s knowledge and the resulting claims. A compensation agreement can explain the incentive. A staff complaint can show what management was told. Operative notes, implant records and billing records can connect the disputed operation to the payment request. Our work is to establish those connections with you.

A 2020 Journal of Forensic and Investigative Accounting paper, A Forensic Accountant’s Guide to the Most Potent Federal Laws Used Against Healthcare Fraud, treats the payment claim and knowledge of its falsity as separate parts of the evidence. Applied here, that means asking both what the hospital billed and what it knew when it billed it.

How Much Does a Medicare Fraud Whistleblower Get Paid?

A whistleblower case under the False Claims Act can pay 15% to 30% of what the government recovers. In MultiCare’s case, the Justice Department announced a 17% share of the settlement for the whistleblower, a former patient at MultiCare.

The case connected an individual patient’s experience to the institution’s decisions about surgery and public-program billing.

You Know What the Hospital Was Told

Whether you work for a hospital or supply its implants, if you saw surgical warnings reach management while operations and billing continued, talk with our whistleblower experts about what you saw. We build your strongest unnecessary surgery whistleblower case with you around the clinical decisions, the money and who knew, and bring in healthcare fraud whistleblower lawyers who understand hospital billing. We stay beside you from the first call through the case.