Shands Teaching Hospital & Clinics Inc., Shands Jacksonville Medical Center Inc. and Shands Jacksonville Healthcare Inc. (collectively, Shands Healthcare), which operates a network of health care providers in Florida, will pay the government and the state of Florida a total of $26 million to settle allegations that six of its health care facilities submitted false claims to Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health care programs for inpatient procedures that should have been billed as outpatient services.
Allegedly, from 2003 through 2008, the six hospitals knowingly submitted inpatient claims to Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE for certain services and procedures that Shands Healthcare knew were correctly billable only as outpatient services or procedures.
The six Florida hospitals were named as defendants in a whistleblower lawsuit filed by the president of a healthcare consulting firm.
Of the $26 million settlement, $25,170,400 will go to Medicare and other federal health care payors, and the state of Florida will receive $829,600.
For more information on this case, click here: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2013/August/13-civ-936.html