Tenet Healthcare Corporation and two of its Atlanta-area subsidiaries have agreed to pay more than $513 million to resolve criminal charges and civil claims relating to what the government says was a scheme to defraud the United States and to pay kickbacks in exchange for patient referrals.
The Tenet subsidiaries, Atlanta Medical Center and North Fulton Medical Center, have agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and to pay healthcare kickbacks and bribes in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS), the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced recently. The kickbacks involved payments for referring pregnant women to their medical centers.
“Atlanta Medical Center Inc. and North Fulton Medical Center Inc. were charged in a criminal information filed today in federal court in Atlanta with conspiracy to defraud the United States by obstructing the lawful government functions of HHS and to violate the AKS, which, among other things, prohibits payments to induce the referral of patients for services paid for by federal healthcare programs,” the DOJ announced. “The two Tenet subsidiaries have agreed to plead guilty to the charges alleged in the criminal information and will forfeit over $145 million to the United States — which represents the amount paid to Atlanta Medical Center Inc. and North Fulton Medical Center Inc. by the Medicare and Georgia Medicaid programs for services provided to patients referred as part of the scheme.”
In addition to the payments, Tenet and the subsidiaries entered into a non-prosecution agreement (NPA) with the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Georgia related to the charges in the criminal information. Under the terms of the NPA, they will avoid prosecution if they cooperate with the government’s ongoing investigation and enhance their compliance and ethics program and internal controls. Tenet also agreed to retain an independent compliance monitor to prevent the recurrence of violations of the AKS by any entity owned in whole, or in part, by Tenet. The NPA is in effect for three years, but the DOJ could extend it another year.
The civil settlement calls for Tenet to pay $368 million to the federal government, the state of Georgia, and the state of South Carolina to resolve claims asserted in a lawsuit filed by a Georgia resident in the Middle District of Georgia under the federal and Georgia False Claims acts.
The federal share of the civil settlement is $244,227,535.30, the state of Georgia will recover $122,880,339.70 and the state of South Carolina will recover $892,125.
The resident bringing the lawsuit will receive $84.43 million.
