Healthicity Blog

It’s finally here. The long awaited Final Rule from CMS for Long-Term Care (LTC) facilities was recently published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016 (Fed. Reg. Vol. 81, No. 192 pages 68688-68872).

According to OCR, Care New England Health System (CNE) has common ownership or control of over 8 covered entity hospitals or clinics in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Lexington Medical Center in South Carolina recently settled for $17 million to resolve allegations that its incentives with physicians violated Stark and Anti-kickback law violations.

A Jacksonville, FL area pain clinic, Coastal Spine and Pain, recently settled with the U.S. Department of Justice for $7.4 million

We’ve highlighted the significance of this case in previous webinars and blog posts, but now we know that it’s at least $3 million dollars more significant than it was before.

It’s not unusual to read about large, multi-million dollar settlements for alleged healthcare fraud and abuses.

Tenet Health announced on Aug. 1, 2016 that it believes it has come to an agreement with the U.S. government for a $514 million settlement associated with a lawsuit alleging it paid for maternity patient referrals.

Most of the time, whistleblowers are employees or someone internal to an organization. In the recent guilty verdict of Dr. Syed Ahmed, a surgeon in New York, it appears from court documents that patient complaints triggered the HHS-OIG and FBI investigations which led to the doctor’s trial.