Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center, a Long Island, N.Y.-based hospital, has agreed to pay $2.92 million, plus interest, to settle allegations of Medicare fraud.
It is alleged that the hospital fraudulently inflated its charges to Medicare patients to obtain enhanced reimbursement from the federal healthcare program.
The lawsuit says that the hospital took advantage of supplemental Medicare reimbursement called "outlier payments," which is provided to hospitals and other healthcare facilities in cases where the cost of care is unusually high.
"Conduct like that alleged here drives up the costs of healthcare for all of us," said Tony West, assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Division.
The suit was originally filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey by a whistleblower, Tony Kite, in 2005. The United States intervened in the suit in November 2009. Under the civil settlement, Kite will receive roughly $613,000, plus interest, out of the proceeds.
"This office is determined to root out any conduct that threatens to undermine the integrity of the federal healthcare programs," said Paul J. Fishman, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey.
The Justice Department has recovered approximately $2.3 billion since January 2009 in cases involving fraud against federal healthcare programs. The Justice Department’s total recoveries in False Claims Act cases since January 2009 have topped $3 billion. Since 2006, the United States has recovered over $1.2 billion from hospitals that it alleged engaged in outlier fraud.