HHS Inspector General Daniel Levinson said he plans to ban South Shore Memorial Hospital in Miami from participating in federal programs. Levinson's office issued a rare letter of exclusion prohibiting the hospital from participating in Medicare, Medicaid and all other federal health programs. The regulator said the hospital has failed to live up to a corporate integrity agreement it signed resolving a 2002 Medicare fraud case. The punishment of exclusion, while always available to federal regulators, is rarely--if ever--applied. Because most hospitals earn between 40 percent and 60 percent of their revenues from federal programs, the punishment is considered the equivalent of the death penalty.
Talking Points: The last hospital to receive an exclusion letter was Tenet's Redding Medical Center, which was banned from taking part in federal programs after a 2002 scandal involving unnecessary heart surgeries.
- see this release from the Office of the Inspector General (pdf)