Covenant Healthcare System, along with two of its physicians, reached agreements with the Department of Justice to pay more than $69 million to resolve allegations that they participated in improper financial relationships, resulting in the submission of false claims to Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, and FECA programs, Policy & Medicine reports.
According to the government, Covenant engaged in various schemes and had “improper financial relationships” with eight referring physicians and a physician-owned investment group. At various points from 2006 to 2016, Covenant had contracts with six physicians to serve as medical directors. However, those arrangements did not satisfy any exceptions to the Stark Law or the Anti-Kickback Statute, which meant that referrals from the physicians to Covenant were in violation of the False Claims Act. Read more.
