Two Dallas hospitals--the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center and Parkland Memorial Hospital--are in the middle of a federal fraud investigation for potentially submitting false Medicare and Medicaid claims, reports the Dallas Morning News. The crucial questions involve faculty physicians and medical residents at UT Southwestern.
Investigators are examining whether UT Southwestern billed for services that its faculty physicians supposedly, but didn't actually, provide while working at Parkland and whether faculty physicians provided adequate supervision to residents. Parkland has a contract with UT Southwestern to run the residency program, and it's not clear whether Parkland is being investigated purely in connection with that contract or in reference to its own Medicare and Medicaid billing as well.
UT Southwestern has a long history of billing mismanagement for Medicare and Medicaid claims. Just this past February, internal auditors discovered "systemic failure" in billing compliance, exposing the facility to "potential civil damages and penalties, criminal sanctions, and administrative remedies, such as program exclusion."
To learn more:
- read this Dallas Morning News article