HHS to ban South Shore from federal programs

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)