October 4, 2016

Arizona not-for-profit community health system Yavapai Regional Medical Center agreed to pay $5.85 million to resolve claims that it violated the False Claims Act by misreporting data about the hours worked by its employees on its annual cost reports, which improperly inflated the amount of money it received from the Medicare program.  According to the government, the artificially inflated wage index was used by the Medicare program when it calculated the amount of the payments it made to Yavapai.  The allegations originated in a whistleblower lawsuit filed by Gregory Kuzma under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act.  Mr. Kuzma will receive a whistleblower award of $1.17 million from the proceeds of the government’s recovery.  DOJ (DAZ)

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Whistleblower Case, Whistleblower Rewards,