Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton (N.J.) agreed to pay $6.35 million to settle allegations that the 270-bed hospital reported inflated charges to Medicare from 1998 to 2001 in order to get higher payments from Medicare's outlier program, the U.S. Justice Department announced.
"In the settlement agreement, the hospital expressly denies any wrongdoing or admission of the government's claims," hospital President and CEO Anthony "Skip" Cimino said in a written statement. The hospital is one of four in the Robert Wood Johnson Health Network.
The government's investigation stems from whistle-blower lawsuits filed under the False Claims Act targeting many hospitals for alleged abuse of the outlier program, which is intended to compensate hospitals for unusually costly care, and quite a few have reached similar settlement agreements with the government.
Three whistle-blowers who filed two separate lawsuits naming the Hamilton hospital will share $1.1 million from the settlement payment.
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