Parkland pays $1.4M to settle improper billing charges

In the fourth recent government crackdown on Parkland Memorial Hospital, the troubled Dallas hospital has agreed to pay a $1.4 million settlement over Medicare and Medicaid fraud allegations, The Dallas Morning News reported.

The settlement stems from a whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2010 and unsealed in May 2012, claiming the hospital and UT Southwestern Medical Center physicians falsely submitted Medicare or Medicaid billing claims for rehabilitation consultations that had not been ordered by patients' primary care physicians, and that some procedures occurred without the required supervision of UTSW faculty physicians, FierceHealthcare previously reported.

While Parkland does not admit liability, the hospital agreed to a "corporate integrity agreement" requiring independent monitoring of its billing and clinical practices for five years.

With the corporate integrity agreement, the hospital hopes to prove to regulators and patients that Parkland is committed to a new culture of accountability, compliance, quality and safety, interim CEO Bob Smith said in a written statement.

Parkland has been no stranger to lawsuits and investigations, earning it a spot on our healthcare naughty list.

However, the troubled facility could finally be on the mend, with patient complaints and grievances steadily declining over the past six months as the hospital followed an exhaustive plan addressing patient safety, treatment, governance and cleanliness issues.

For more:
- here's the Dallas Morning News article
- read the statement

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