Hospital Fraud Archives - Page 4 of 17

November 8, 2019

Lenox Hill Hospital and its corporate parent, Northwell Health, Inc., have agreed to pay $12.3 million for violating the Stark Law and False Claims Act in submissions to Medicare. From 2013 to 2018, Lenox Hill paid the chair of its urology department, Dr. David Samadi, a salary and bonus that improperly took into account the value of his referrals and grossly exceeded fair market value. In an effort to maximize revenue-generating surgeries, Samadi was repeatedly scheduled to perform overlapping surgeries, leaving patients with unsupervised medical residents in violation of both hospital and Medicare rules. The department also billed Medicare for minor procedures performed in operating rooms with an unnecessarily full operating room staff. USAO SDNY

Tagged in: Anti-Kickback and Stark, FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Hospital Fraud, Improper Medical Personnel, Medicare,

September 26, 2019

The Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana, together with related entities and the Board of Supervisors of Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, which operate University Health Hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana, will pay $530,000 to resolve claims that they submitted improper claims for implantable automatic defibrillators. To be reimbursed for the procedures, Medicare requires providers and hospitals to submit data regarding them to a qualified registry, so that the procedures can be further studied; University Health Hospital failed to make the required data submissions. The investigation was initiated by a qui tam lawsuit filed by a whistleblower under the False Claims Act. USAO WD LA

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Hospital Fraud, Medical Billing Fraud, Medical Devices and DME, Whistleblower Case,

September 19, 2019

Selma, Alabama hospital Vaughan Regional Medical Center, together with two of its ER physicians and an affiliated company, will pay $1.45 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by having medical residents who were not fully licensed and credentialed provide emergency room services. The hospital then falsified medical records and submitted claims to Medicare as if the services had been provided by a licensed physician. The case originated with a qui tam action filed by Dr. Samuel Clemmons, who will receive $275,000. USAO SD AL

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Hospital Fraud, Improper Medical Personnel, Medical Billing Fraud, Whistleblower Case, Whistleblower Rewards,

September 13, 2019

Texas hospital administrator Starsky Bomer was convicted of violating the Anti-Kickback Statute and conspiring to commit healthcare fraud for paying kickbacks to group homes and others in exchange for referrals to outpatient treatments for severe mental illness at his affiliated hospital, resulting in $16 million dollars of false claims to Medicare. The kickbacks came in the form of salary payments and payments for transportation to owners of group homes. Mr. Bomer was sentenced to ten years in prison for his involvement in the scheme. DOJ

Tagged in: Anti-Kickback and Stark, Criminal Proceedings, Healthcare Fraud, Hospital Fraud, Medicare,

Is Data the Future of Whistleblowing?

Posted 08/28/19

Two recent decisions, one in California and the other in Texas, might be signaling a new frontier in False Claims Act (FCA) litigation: the data-driven whistleblower. Both cases are brought by the same whistleblower, Integra. Integra is not a typical whistleblower, which are generally corporate insiders or other employees of a company that is accused of defrauding the government. Instead, Integra is a corporation that...

Tagged in: FCA Federal, FCA State, Hospital Fraud, Importance of Whistleblowers, Medical Billing Fraud, Medicare, Public Disclosure and Public Information, Whistleblower Case, Whistleblower Eligibility,

July 24, 2019

Pennsylvania-based Eagleville Hospital has agreed to pay $2.85 million to settle allegations of defrauding Medicare, Medicaid, and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. According to an anonymous relator, Eagleville violated the False Claims Act between 2011 and 2018 by submitting claims for substance abuse patients improperly admitted for high paying, hospital-level detoxification treatments. The whistleblower will receive $500,000 of the recovery. USAO EDPA

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Hospital Fraud, Medicaid, Medicare, Other Government Health Programs, Upcoding, Whistleblower Case, Whistleblower Rewards,

July 15, 2019

Millcreek Community Hospital has agreed to pay $2.4 million and enter into a Corporate Integrity Agreement requiring five years of monitoring to resolve allegations of violating the False Claims Act. For a period of four years, the Pennsylvania-based hospital’s inpatient rehabilitation unit allegedly admitted ineligible patients, then failed to document in medical records that such services were medically necessary and reasonable. USAO WDPA

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Hospital Fraud, Lack of Medical Necessity, Medicaid, Medicare,

June 27, 2019

Anne Arundel Medical Center (AAMC) has settled with the United States for alleged submissions of false claims to Medicare, TRICARE, and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. In a whistleblower suit by former AAMC employee Barbara McHenry, the Maryland-based hospital was accused of billing for medically unnecessary Evaluation and Management (E/M) services from 2010 to 2013, and doubled billing for E/M services from 2014 to 2017 despite a 2014 update from CMS. As part of the settlement, AAMC will pay $3 million and comply with a five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement, and McHenry will receive $473,100. USAO MD

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Hospital Fraud, Medical Billing Fraud, Medicare, Other Government Health Programs, Whistleblower Case, Whistleblower Rewards,

June 26, 2019

The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania Health System have agreed to pay $275,000 to settle allegations of submitting false claims to Medicaid in violation of the False Claims Act. During a seven month period in 2017, the health system’s Lancaster General Hospital allegedly billed Medicaid for interpretations of obstetric ultrasounds despite its physicians failing to complete those reports in a timely manner. In about 10% of the cases, the reports were not completed until more than 90 days after the ultrasound was performed, rendering them useless. USAO EDPA

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Hospital Fraud, Medicaid, Medical Billing Fraud,

May 31, 2019

A Kansas hospital accused of submitting false claims to Medicare and Medicaid has agreed to pay $250,000 to settle a qui tam suit by Bashar Awad and Cynthia McKerrigan, with about $50,000 of the recovery going to the whistleblowers. According to the suit, from 2012 to 2013, Coffey Health System falsely attested to having conducted or reviewed security risk analyses of electronic health records (EHR), which was a requirement under a federal incentive program that pays healthcare providers for adopting certified EHR technology. USAO KS

Tagged in: Certifications, Electronic Health Records, FCA Federal, Hospital Fraud, Medicaid, Medicare, Whistleblower Case, Whistleblower Rewards,

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