Compliance & Legal

The former CFO of a Long Beach hospital in California, two orthopedic surgeons and two others have been charged in relation to a $600 million fraudulent billings scheme involving illegal referrals of thousands of patients for spinal surgeries.

Pharmaceutical company Novartis will pay $370 million to settle claims that it gave kickbacks to specialty pharmacies in exchange for recommending two of its drugs, the U.S. Justice Department Southern District of New York announced this week.

Federal officials this week charged Pamela Gardner, 53, and Torvis Gardner, 44, both of Springfield, Tennessee, and Dr. Donald Boatright, 70, of Nashville with with soliciting and receiving kickbacks in exchange for making referrals for the purchase of medical equipment, according to the FBI.

This year, Healthcare Finance is asking its audience of healthcare finance decision-makers to help us rank the top issues with its inaugural, "Year that was, year that will be" survey.

The State of Michigan on Tuesday denied a request by Henry Ford Health System's health plan to allow it to keep two regions, including Detroit, to its approved contract for the state's Medicaid program.

The study found that only 8 percent of healthcare institutions prohibit consumer messaging apps for employee communication -- perhaps unsurprising given employees in the healthcare industry use mobile messaging more frequently than voice calling for colleagues with whom they communicate most frequently.

A judge in New Jersey is expected to hear a complaint by Saint Peter's University Hospital that it was illegally excluded from a new discounted health plan offered by the state's largest health insurer because it and other independent, Catholic hospitals serve low income residents, according to the health system.

CCOs at companies with more than $3 billion in annual revenue earned an average of $297,604 a year, while those at small organizations with revenue less than $5 million earned $90,487, according to the survey.

HCA Holdings on Wednesday said it will pay $215 million to settle a shareholder action suit over the information it disclosed prior to its 2011 initial public offering.

Nearly 500 hospitals have been ordered to pay the government more than $250 million to resolve allegations they allowed cardiac devices to be implanted in Medicare patients who were not eligible for the procedure, according to an Oct. 30 announcement from the Department of Justice in Florida.