US executives are stealing multi-millions and going free while poor folks are jailed for not being able to afford bail —
Before even being convicted.
Before even being convicted.
By Bob Egelko
Dignity Health, a three-state hospital chain based in San Francisco, has agreed to pay the government $37 million to settle claims that it overbilled Medicare and a military health care program for years.
The Justice Department said Dignity, formerly known as Catholic Healthcare West, submitted bills for inpatient care at 13 of its 39 hospitals in California, Nevada and Arizona that should have been charged at less-expensive outpatient rates.
The bills covered elective cardiovascular surgeries for stents and pacemakers, and diagnostic procedures at the 13 hospitals from 2006 to 2010, and a spinal operation called kyphoplasty at four hospitals from 2000 to 2008, the Justice Department said. The bills were paid by Medicare and a military health program called Tricare.
The case arose as a whistle-blower suit filed in San Francisco by a former Dignity Health employee, Kathleen Hawkins, who will receive $6.25 million of the settlement, the Justice Department said.
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