Hospital to pay $3.8M for fraud charges

Lafayette, LA-based Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center said will be charged $3.8 million for defrauding Medicare and Medicaid. However, the hospital says it didn't knowingly defraud the program. The charges relate to Dr. Mehmood Patel, a doctor who allegedly performed hundreds of unnecessary heart procedures at the hospital until a whistleblower filed suit against him. Lourdes revoked Patel's hospital privileges in 2004 and turned him over to authorities, but prosecutors say the hospital knew there were problems for years and did nothing. "At a minimum, Lourdes recklessly disregarded its responsibility to ensure that it had processes in place to detect the kinds of things we uncovered," U.S. Attorney Donald Washington told The Daily Adviser. The hospital said it will step up its oversight as a result of the incident. Patel has already been indicted and will stand trial in 2007.

To read more about Lourdes' settlement:
- check out this Daily Adviser article