A settlement has been reached to resolve False Claims Act allegations brought against Ashland Hospital Corp. d/b/a King’s Daughters Medical Center (KDMC). KDMC is accused of submitting false claims to the Medicare and Kentucky Medicaid programs for medically unnecessary coronary stents and diagnostic catheterizations and had prohibited financial relationships with physicians referring patients to the hospital, the Justice Department announced today.
The Commonwealth of Kentucky will receive approximately $1,018,380 of the recovery.
The government alleged that, between 2006 and 2011, KDMC billed for numerous unnecessary coronary stents and diagnostic catheterizations performed by KDMC physicians on Medicare and Medicaid patients who did not need them. The government also alleged that the physicians falsified medical records in order to justify these unnecessary procedures, which allegedly generated millions of dollars in Medicare and Kentucky Medicaid reimbursements for KDMC.
The settlement also resolves allegations that KDMC violated the Stark Law by paying certain cardiologists salaries that were unreasonably high and in excess of fair market value.
