DOJ: CHS submitted $27.5M in bad claims

The U.S. Department of Justice already had let the world know that hospitals run by Community Health Systems had submitted improper claims. Now, the government has attached a number to CHS's alleged indiscretions. The DOJ now says that three of facilities run by the Franklin, TN-based hospital operator submitted a total of $27.5 million in improper claims to a New Mexico-based indigent care program. The DOJ says that because CHS submitted the improper claims, the state then in turn submitted false claims to the federal government. CHS, for its part, continues to deny that it submitted any false claims, and is in talks with the feds.

The news follows a disappointing quarter for CHS, which just announced that it lost $88.3 million during Q4 '07 on revenue of $3.53 billion. That's down from profit of $53.6 million $1.1 billion in revenue for the same quarter in 2006.

To learn more about the allegations:
- read this Modern Healthcare piece [1] (reg. req.)

Related Articles:
NY overpays providers by $26M. Article [2]
Medicaid programs work on shared EMRs. Article [3]