1.      New York Presbyterian Hospital

     The Columbia Presbyterian Division paid $480,000 in 2003 for improper billing as well as upcoding. Currently, the Government is demanding $8,000,000 in back payments for improper billing of medical trainee costs.
The Weill Medical College division paid $4,400,000 for misuse of funds awarded by the National Institutes of Health.
 

2.      Yale University School of Medicine

     In 1999 paid $5,500,000 to the Medicare Program for allegedly providing care by medical residents without proper supervision by attending physicians in violation of PATH regulations.

Another example of this pattern of putting financial considerations ahead of patient safety, Yale had to pay another $5,500,000 in settlement of a lawsuit brought by staff Radiologists who alleged that the Medical Center was permitting inadequately trained staff to read x-rays.

3.      Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

In 2003 paid $800,000 for violations of the PATH regulations to Medicare. In 2004 they paid $2,600,000 for noncompliance with federal research grants charging the Government more than was actually spent.

4.      Harvard University Hospitals

     In 2003, a $75,000 fine for PATH violations at the Massachusetts General Hospital for patient care delivered by residents that was unsupervised by any attending physicians.

     Beth Israel – Deaconess, in 2002, paid $5,400,000 for improper billing to Medicare and procedures performed with experimental cardiac devices that were not approved by the FDA.

     Harvard and Beth Israel Hospitals, in 2004, paid $2,400,000 for misuse of research and training grants. The Massachusetts General Hospital had to repay the State Medicaid program $1,5000,000 for double billing in 2002. The Attorney General Reilly commented "In tough state budget times when programs are being slashed and the Medicaid budget is stretched to it's limits, it is crucial that providers who receive overpayments return them to the Commonwealth."

5.      The Cleveland Clinic

     In 2003, paid $4,000,000 to Medicare for claiming that supervising doctors had performed services that had actually been performed by medical trainees.

    In 2004, $2,300,000 was paid for false cost reporting (in the Home Care division).
The Cleveland Clinic Florida Hospital in 2005 had to pay $2,750,000 to settle allegations that they had billed for services that were actually to which they were not entitled.

6.      University of Illinois College of Medicine and University of Chicago Hospitals

     In 2003, the University settled a lawsuit for $2,000,000 with the Federal Government and the State of Illinois for allegedly exaggerating the seriousness of the medical conditions of liver disease patients. The alleged goal was to perform liver transplants on patients who were not currently in need of a transplant. This was to insure the Hospital performed the required number of transplants necessary to maintain their Medicaid and Medicare Certification. The alleged end result was that patients who did need transplants in other facilities might not get them. Similar allegations were "settled" against Northwestern Memorial Hospital for $23,587 and the University of Chicago Hospital for $115,000 The actions were brought by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney.

     In November, 2005, the State of Illinois joined a "Whistleblower Suit" against the University of Chicago Hospitals. The allegations are that at Chicago-Comer Children's Hospital from 1997-2005, the Hospital routinely ignored State regulations regarding the distance infants must be kept from one another in the neonatal ICU. This is called "double-bunking" and places infants at risk due to the risk of spreading infection. The Hospital is alleged to have "double-bunked" neonates in order to inflate their reimbursement from Medicaid.

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