The University of Louisville Hospital has agreed to pay the federal government about $2.8 million to settle allegations that it submitted false claims for payment to the Medicare program.
The voluntary settlement was announced Monday by U.S. Attorney David Hale and the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services.
“Those that do not follow the rules designed to safeguard our nation’s health care resources will be held to account,” they said in a statement.
According to the settlement agreement, from 2006 through 2010, U of L’s FirstCare program, which provides non-urgent care in the emergency room, employed nurse practitioners and physician assistants whose salaries and benefits were paid by Medicare.
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Over the same period, U of L emergency room physicians treated those staffers as their own employees, including collecting from Medicare for their services. In April 2011, attorneys for the U of L Hospital disclosed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office that it may have violated federal law concerning the relationships it had with certain health care providers, the statement says.
This settlement agreement is neither an admission of liability by U of L Hospital nor a concession by the United States that its claims are not well-founded, Hale and the inspector general said.
Stephanie Collins, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said that U of L, by reporting the alleged violations itself, avoided penalties and possible treble damages. “Treble” is a legal term meaning a court can triple the amount of the actual/compensatory damages awarded to a plaintiff. She said the hospital ended the practice in 2010.
Gary Mans, a spokesman for University Medical Center, which operates the hospital and the James Graham Brown Cancer Center, called the settlement “fair and appropriate” and said the center is cooperating fully with the investigation.
He said University Medical Center is dedicated to “providing the highest quality health care services in full compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
“UMC cooperated fully throughout the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Inspector General’s investigation, and the government did not require that UMC enter into a Corporate Integrity Agreement,” Mans said. “The operational processes that led to the investigation were self-corrected when internally identified in 2010. We believe the settlement is fair and appropriate.”
The $2,833,409 settlement was struck by Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Schecter with assistance from the inspector general’s office of counsel.
The settlement is one of several paid by hospital companies in recent years. In August 2011, Baptist Healthcare System and Hardin Memorial Hospital agreed to pay nearly $9 million to resolve claims of improper Medicare billing.
Under that settlement Baptist Healthcare System agreed to pay $5,785,000, and Hardin Memorial, which is managed by Baptist Healthcare, agreed to pay $3,115,000.
Date: Jul. 1, 2013