Seven Hospitals Settle Lawsuit For $5.5 Million - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Healthcare Financial Management, July, 2001

Seven hospitals have agreed to pay the United States almost $5.5 million to settle claims that they unlawfully charged Federal healthcare programs for surgical procedures using experimental cardiac devices, the Department of Justice announced. The devices had not been approved for marketing by the Food and Drug Administration when the procedures were performed between 1987 and 1994. The United States maintained that the hospitals violated the False Claims Act by knowingly seeking Federal payment for services when they knew that Medicare and TRICARE, the military healthcare program, considered the procedures to be nonreimbursable.

The hospitals and their settlement amounts are:

* Holy Cross Hospital, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, $2.8 million;

* HCA-The Healthcare Company, Nashville, Tennessee, which operated Green Hospital of Scripps Clinic, San Diego, California, until November 1991, and also owned Health-west Regional Medical Center, Phoenix, Arizona; West Florida Regional Medical Center, Pensacola, Florida; and Miami Heart Institute, Miami, Florida, $1 .9 million;

* South Miami Hospital, Miami, Florida, $450,000; and

* Mount Sinai Hospital, Miami, Florida, $267,174.