The Fort Worth (TX) Star-Telegram reported, “Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital will pay the federal government just shy of $1 million to settle allegations that it submitted improper claims to Medicare for interpretation of blood tests that in reality didn’t need analysis, the US attorney’s office announced.” The attorney’s office said that “the former president of the hospital arranged to pay a doctors’ group for uncompensated charity care and running a blood gas lab, though a contract required that payments be made only for interpretation of blood tests.”
The Dallas Business Journal reports, “Investigators claim that instead of reducing the compensation or revising the contract, Arlington Memorial’s then-president agreed to pay the physician group.” The attorney’s office said that “the corporate parent of Arlington Memorial Hospital disclosed” the payments “to the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services.” Still, “Arlington Memorial Hospital has not admitted any wrongdoing and denies all liability.”
From the American Association for Justice news release.