New Orleans Hospital To Pay $3.3 Million for Overcharging Medicaid
October 29, 2008
The US Department of Justice reported the settlement between a New Orleans area hospital and the United States and State of Louisiana on October 17, 2008. West Jefferson Medical Center agreed to pay $3.3 million to resolve allegations that it fraudulently overcharged the Medicaid program.
According to the lawsuit, West Jefferson Medical Center made fraudulent claims about its capability to perform certain critical care services in its Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). As a result, the hospital received payments from Medicaid for services it was not able to perform.
Whistleblower Leslie Klemm was a nurse at West Jefferson, and will receive $627,000 of the recovery for filing the suit on behalf of the government.
“The Department is committed to recovering money fraudulently obtained from the Medicaid program,” said Gregory G. Katsas, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division. “It is essential to ensure that scarce Medicaid dollars are not misspent, but that they go to help those who most need them.”
If you are seeing fraud on the government, contact us by calling 800-377-1812 for strictly confidential advice from experienced counsel, with no fee obligation.
