The U.S. Department of Justice has joined a whistle-blower suit against Community Health Systems, which charges that three of the chain's New Mexico hospitals violated the False Claims Act. The charges allege that the hospitals improperly received federal matching funds through two state Medicaid programs that subsidize indigent care.

The allegations arose from a whistle-blower suit filed in 2005 by Robert Baker, a former revenue manager in CHS's corporate office.  Baker and the government claims that the New Mexico hospitals inappropriately made donations to New Mexico counties, knowing their money would be tripled, partly by collecting federal dollars, and returned to them from the state.

To find out more about this case:
- read this Modern Healthcare article [1] (reg. req.)

Related Articles:
Department of Justice faces 500-case healthcare whistle-blower backlog [2]
Iasis Healthcare whistle-blower suit dismissed [3]
DoJ joins whistle-blower suit against OH MDs, hospital [4]
FL health system settles Medicare fraud charges [5]