New Jersey Hospital to Pay $6.35 Million to Resolve Allegations of Inflating Charges

Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital has agreed to pay $6.35 Million to settle allegations of violations of the False Claims Act.  The suits alleged that the Hamilton, New Jersey hospital fraudulently inflated its charges to Medicare patients to obtain larger “outlier payments.”  Congress enacted the supplemental outlier payments to ensure that hospitals have incentives to treat patients whose care requires unusually high costs.  The companion cases are captioned: U.S. ex rel. Salvatori and Iveson v. Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at Hamilton, 08-1265 (JAG) (D.N.J.) and U.S. ex rel. Monahan v. Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at Hamilton, 02-5702 (JAG) (D.N.J.).  The whistleblower in the Monahan matter was represented by Marc S. Raspanti and Michael A. Morse of Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick & Raspanti, LLP.

To read the complete Department of Justice press release, use the following link: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/March/10-civ-293.html