Govt Intervenes in Lawsuit Against Tenet Healthcare
The U.S. government has intervened in a False Claims Act Lawsuit against Tenet Healthcare Corp. and four of its hospitals in Georgia and South Carolina, as well as another hospital in Georgia that is owned by Health Management Associates (HMA), the Department of Justice announced earlier this week. Tenet and HMA are two of the largest owner/operators of hospitals in the United States. The government also is intervening against the clinics and related entities known as Hispanic Medical Management d/b/a Clinica de la Mama.
The hospitals allegedly paid kickbacks to obstetric clinics serving primarily undocumented Hispanic women in return for referral of those patients for labor and delivery at the hospitals. The hospitals then billed the Medicaid programs in Georgia and South Carolina for the services provided to the referred patients and, in some instances, also obtained additional Medicare reimbursement based on the influx of low-income patients.
The lawsuit alleges that four Tenet hospitals, Atlanta Medical Center, North Fulton Regional Hospital, Spalding Regional Hospital and Hilton Head Hospital in South Carolina, and one HMA facility, Walton Regional Medical Center (since renamed Clearview Regional Medical Center), paid kickbacks to Hispanic Medical Management d/b/a Clinica de la Mama (Clinica) and related entities in return for Clinica’s agreement to send pregnant women to their facilities for deliveries paid for by Medicaid, in violation of the federal Medicare and Medicaid Anti-Kickback Statute. The kickbacks were disguised as payments for a variety of services allegedly provided by Clinica.
The Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits offering, paying, soliciting or receiving remuneration to induce referrals of items or services covered by Medicare, Medicaid and other federally funded programs. The Anti-Kickback Statute is intended to ensure that a physician’s medical judgment is not compromised by improper financial incentives and is instead based on the best interests of the patient.
The lawsuit was originally filed by an unnamed whistleblower under the whistleblower provision of the False Claims Act. The False Claims Act allows private parties with knowledge of fraud against the government to sue on behalf of the government and share in the recovery. The False Claims Act also allows the government to intervene in the lawsuit, which it has elected to do in this case.
The Chanler Group, in association with the Hirst Law Group, represents whistleblowers who take action under the False Claims Act to report fraud committed against the federal and state governments. We have years of experience representing whistleblower clients who expose every kind of fraud against the government, including health care fraud, contract fraud, and tax fraud. Read more about our expertise in False Claims Act cases and how you can take action.