Joe White, former chief financial officer at Tyler, Texas-based Shelby Regional Medical Center, pleaded guilty Nov. 12 to making a false statement to the government in order to obtain incentive payments under the Medicare Meaningful Use program. White, who was in charge of attestation, attested in November 2012 that the medical center had successfully met the Meaningful Use criteria knowing that it had not done so.
The medical center received $785,655 in incentive payments as a result of that false statement. There was no indication whether the medical center has returned the money. According to the indictment, Shelby relied mainly on paper records and inputted data into the electronic health record manually, often months after patients were discharged and after the fiscal year had ended. White faces up to five years in prison. Announcement