$5 Million Settlement In Federal Lawsuit Against Christus Spohn Health System
- June 21, 2012 by Qui Tam
- Federal False Claims Act, Healthcare
The United States Government collected $5 million from Christus Spohn Health System Corporation to resolve allegations of improperly admitting patients, which were filed under the False Claims Act.
Located in Texas, six hospitals of the Christus Spohn Health System Corporation falsely claimed outpatients as inpatients to be able to send false billings to Medicare. Most patients were released from the hospital within less than 24 hours. Since inpatient billing codes cost more than outpatient codes, the hospitals were wrongfully collecting the excess money. The hospitals accused are Christus Spohn Hospitals in Corpus Christi – Shoreline, Corpus Christi – Memorial, Corpus Christi – South, Alice, Beeville and Kleberg.
Under seal under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act, Christus – Shoreline’s former director of case management filed the lawsuit claiming the hospitals were submitting these false claims. If the government’s investigation validates these allegations, then the former director will receive 20% of the $5,100,481.74 recovery.
For more information, please see:
http://www.kztv10.com/news/5-million-settlement-in-federal-lawsuit-against-christus-spohn-health-system/