A recently unsealed federal lawsuit alleges hospital owner HCA Holdings subjected patients to medically unnecessary, invasive and high-risk cardiology procedures for years and then submitted false medical claims for federal reimbursement, according to court documents.
The U.S. District Court in Florida on Monday unsealed documents regarding the federal investigation against HCA Holdings Inc. and two of its hospitals.
The suit was filed in February 2012 by Christopher Gentile, who was professional liability claims director for a subsidiary of HCA in Tennessee at the time, against HCA hospitals Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute in Fort Pierce, Florida and Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point in Hudson, Florida, according to court documents.
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The names of alleged Medicare beneficiaries remains sealed to protect their identities, according to the court record.
In July 2012, federal prosecutors in Miami notified the company that they were probing if certain cardiology procedures performed at eight of its hospitals were medically necessary. The federal investigation continues, the HCA told the Wall Street Journal
The U.S. Department of Justice has declined to intervene.
The law allows citizens to file so-called whistleblower cases to seek to recover damages for the government. If successful, the person who files the complaint can receive a percentage of any penalties paid to the government.
HCA settled federal criminal and civil fraud charges for a combined $1.7 billion in 2000 and 2003 -- at the time the largest settlement from a federal health care probe. The charges included improperly billing Medicare and other federal health programs and paying kickbacks to doctors, according to the WSJ.
Twitter: @SusanMorseHFN