Christus Health paid the U.S. nearly $1 million to settle whistle-blower allegations that several of its hospitals knowingly failed to disclose and return Medicare overpayments, the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles announced.
The settlement stems from a False Claims Act lawsuit filed in 1998 that has now yielded payments totaling about $61 million from nine such agreements with hospitals alleged to have misled the government on the advice of revenue recovery firm Healthcare Financial Advisors, according to a news release. Christus is the last hospital defendant to resolve the matter.
Irving, Texas-based Christus denies the allegations in the agreement, which stipulates that the system does not admit liability by settling the matter. A spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The settlement covers Medicare overpayments received from 1988 to 1994, most of which were repaid to the government under the terms of a previous settlement with St. Joseph Medical Center, Houston, which Christus sold to Hospital Partners of America in 2006.
Healthcare Financial Advisors was acquired in 1998 by Certus Corp., which is now part of Neohapsis.
