Whistleblower suit: Hospitals defrauded Medicaid

[avaistheone1]

Source: AP

ATLANTA (AP) — Two large hospital operators paid kickbacks to clinics that directed expectant mothers living in the country illegally to their hospitals and filed fraudulent Medicaid claims on those patients, a federal whistleblower lawsuit unsealed Wednesday said.

Naples, Fla.-based Health Management Associates and Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp. and their affiliates entered into contracts with clinics operated by Hispanic Medical Management and Clinica de la Mama and their affiliates, the lawsuit says. The clinics then referred pregnant women living in the country without authorization to for-profit hospitals operated by HMA and Tenet in exchange for kickbacks from fraudulent Medicaid claims, the lawsuit says.

Paying for or accepting money to arrange for medical treatment under federally funded programs is prohibited by the Medicare and Medicaid Patient Protection Act, known as the anti-kickback statute.

An HMA representative said in an email that the company does not comment on pending litigation.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/whistleblower-suit-hospitals-defrauded-medicaid

[KansDem]

1. Man, is *everybody* on the take?

Judges getting kickbacks for putting children in detention
Hospitals defrauding government programs
Banks laundering drug money
Administrators raising school's performance scores
Governor's wife buying personal items with campaign funds.
etcetcetc...

We're no longer a democracy; we're a kleptocracy!

[Skittles]

2. they are not only all on the take

a great percentage of them are on the take while describing themselves as CHRISTIANS

[giftedgirl77]

3. and accusing everyone else of being

the takers. They are nothing but a bunch of disgusting hypocrites.

[matthews]

4. Tenet just sold Creighton University Med Center (Omaha) to Alegent Health

last October. I hadn't been there long but the people I was working with said that Tenet got constant complaints about service and they had a hard time keeping good doctors and they unloaded it because the management was so bad.

I wasn't in a position to know antything but my bosses were and that's where my info came from.