by Ben Vernia | April 10th, 2012
On April 10, the Department of Justice announced that Tenet Healthcare had agreed to pay nearly $43 million to resolve claims that it had self-disclosed to the OIG-HHS under the terms of the company’s Corporate Integrity Agreement:
Tenet Healthcare Corporation has agreed to pay the United States $42.75 million to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by overbilling the federal Medicare program, the Justice Department announced today.
The settlement resolves allegations pertaining to the various inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) that Dallas-based Tenet has owned and operated throughout the country. IRFs are designed for patients who need an intense rehabilitation program that requires a multidisciplinary, coordinated team approach to improve their ability to function. Because the patients treated at these facilities require more intensive rehabilitation therapy and closer medical supervision than is provided in other settings, such as acute care hospitals or skilled nursing facilities, Medicare generally pays IRFs at a higher rate for rehabilitation care than it pays for such care in other settings.
The Justice Department alleged that, between May 15, 2005, and Dec. 31, 2007, Tenet improperly billed Medicare for the treatment of patients at its IRFs when, in fact, these patient stays did not meet the standards to qualify for an IRF admission. Today’s settlement is the United States’ single largest recovery pertaining to inappropriate admissions to IRFs.
