The HHS Office of Inspector General has found that the federal government overpaid University Hospital, Newark $171.4 million dollars between 1996 and 2001. The state relied on an outside contractor that miscalculated the hospital's disproportionate share payments (DSH)--the amount hospitals are compensated for the higher costs of treating a large number of low-income patients. In 1996, the state hired Deloitte to identify unclaimed expenses and the firm incorrectly included $169.3 million of medical school appropriations in their calculations. New Jersey must now repay the federal government $85.7. University Hospital, Newark is owned by the troubled University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, which has been the focus of repeated reports of financial and political wrongdoing over the past year. In 2005 the hospital paid a large fine for double-billing Medicaid.
- read the OIG report