Hawthorne hospital pays $2 million to resolve Medicare fraud claims
Tuesday February 04, 2003HAWTHORNE, Calif. (AP) Without admitting wrongdoing, Robert F. Kennedy Medical Center has paid the U.S. government $2 million to resolve Medicare fraud allegations brought by a ``whistleblower'' lawsuit.
The government received the payment Jan. 28 and the lawsuit by Health Outcomes Technologies Inc., of Doylestown, Penn., was unsealed Monday. Under the U.S. False Claims Act, anyone can file suit on behalf of the federal government and share in any settlement. Health Outcomes gets $280,000.
U.S. Attorney Debra W. Yang said Tuesday that the 255-bed hospital was accused by Health Outcomes, a software provider, of routinely seeking a higher rate of Medicare reimbursement than the services it performed.
The practice of billing Medicare for a more serious condition than the hospital actually treats is known as ``upcoding,'' Yang said.
Joan Bero, the hospital's president and chief executive, said the settlement ends an investigation of bills submitted from 1994 to 1998.
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