San Francisco-based Dignity Health and two Tenet Healthcare-affiliated facilities in California agreed to pay more than $22 million combined to settle Medi-Cal billing fraud allegations, Becker’s reports.
The federal government and state of California accused Dignity, Twin Cities Community Hospital and Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center of submitting Medi-Cal claims for services that were not allowed medical expenses, did not reflect the fair market value of the enhanced services provided or were duplicated services.
Dignity Health agreed to pay $13.5 million to the federal government to resolve allegations its three hospitals and a clinic in Santa Barbara County and San Luis Obispo County knowingly submitted false claims for “enhanced services” related to Medi-Cal expansion from February 2015 to June 2016. The health system also agreed to pay $1.5 million to the state of California as part of the settlement, the Justice Department said.
Twin Cities and Sierra Vista agreed to pay $6.75 million to the federal government to resolve allegations the hospitals filed false claims between January 2014 and April 2015. The hospitals will also pay $750,000 to the state of California. Read more.
