Christ Hospital Pays Man $100 Million!
Christ Hospital has settled a federal whistleblower lawsuit accusing its acclaimed cardiac-care center of running an illegal kickback scheme...
Christ Hospital has settled a federal whistleblower lawsuit accusing its acclaimed cardiac-care center of running an illegal kickback scheme.
Christ and fellow defendant the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati will pay millions to end the lawsuit, and retired cardiologist Harry Fry, who filed suit in 2003, stands to gain millions in the settlement.
The sides are still finalizing settlement documents and did not release the amount of the civil penalty it will pay. The settlement could approach $100 million.
The government insisted that each of more than 100,000 Medicare or Medicaid claims filed from the heart station from 1999 to 2004 were a violation with a penalty of up to $11,000 each. The hospital and doctors insisted that many of those forms were for “$8 EKGs” and that merely assigning time did not induce cardiologists to refer patients to Christ Hospital.
Both sides had staked out positions in the case and prepared for a trial later this year, but Judge S. Arthur Spiegel forced final settlement talks.
“We have a deal,” said Glenn Whitaker, lawyer for whistleblower Fry. Whitaker declined to specify an exact amount and said he does not know how much of the settlement will eventually go to Fry.
“It’s a very substantial payment,” he said. “It’s going to be a big number.”
Christ Hospital insisted it had done nothing wrong but settled to “avoid the risk of the multibillion-dollar award sought by the government.”
“We’re glad to get this behind us,” said Susan Croushore, chief executive officer. “We believe we didn’t do anything wrong. We were really trying to provide high-quality care.”
Ken Seibel, the lawyer for Ohio Heart & Vascular Center, the doctors group that filled most of the heart-station slots and that sold its assets to Christ Hospital in late 2008, said the doctors “haven’t paid a penny” toward the settlement.
“The government has conceded that there were no unnecessary services, no overbilling and not one patient referred improperly by any doctor,” Seibel said.
Fry’s lawsuit was unsealed in April 2008 when the Justice Department filed its own complaint. Since then, Christ Hospital has acquired the assets of Ohio Heart & Vascular Center and it has withdrawn from the alliance.