Memorial Health Care System has agreed to pay more than $1 million to settle claims that it violated the False Claims Act and other federal regulations, ending a federal probe of its patient referral practices and financial arrangement with doctors, Tennessee's U.S. Attorney's Office announced yesterday.
According to the settlement, beginning as early as January 2003, Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Memorial entered into financial agreements with certain physicians and practices, which provided financial benefits designed to generate referrals to Memorial facilities. Those arrangements not only involved false claims to Medicare, but Stark Law and the Anti-Kickback Statute violations, the state's attorney's office noted.
After the Office of Inspector General and U.S. Department of Justice began inspecting Memorial's patient referral practices in 2009, but before it was notified of the investigation, Memorial found problems with leases with certain doctors, notified government officials, and fixed the lease arrangements, the system yesterday said in a statement.
Although they the system has not admitted intentional wrongdoing, it agreed to pay the federal government $1.28 million. It also said it will continue to routinely review leases and contracts to ensure compliance.
"This is an excellent example of how a healthcare provider can self-report billing concerns to the government and avoid costly false claims litigation," Derrick L. Jackson, Special Agent in Charge at the HHS-OIG in Atlanta, said in a statement. "The OIG welcomes the opportunity to work with providers to resolve issues such as this and return money back to the Medicare Trust Fund."
To learn more:
- here's Tennessee attorney's office announcement
- read the Memorial statement (.pdf)