Justice Department joins another suit against Columbia

An HHBR Staff Report

The Justice Department (Washington) joined another whistleblower suit against Columbia/HCA Healthcare last week (Nashville, TN), filing a brief in the U.S. District Court in Miami that accused the company of broad breaches of the False Claims Act related to Medicare reimbursement. The allegations have increased pressure for Columbia to settle previous allegations of fraud.

The government said in the complaint that the company "defrauded the United States by filing false claims, specifically hospital cost reports and patient-specific forms, with the Medicare programs pertaining to costs incurred by Columbia for home health services furnished to homebound patients."

The suit, which is one of about a dozen unsealed to date, may be pooled with others the Justice Department is pursuing as part of a still-sealed motion the government made late last year to combine the various suits, reported Dow Jones Business News. Like the other actions the Department of Justice is pursuing, the latest suit alleges that senior Columbia officials knowingly filed false paperwork with the government for reimbursements from nine Miami-area hospitals, Dow Jones reported.

Columbia officials have denied the charges in the suit. "The issues brought forth in this case are nothing new at all," Jeff Prescott, a spokesman for the firm, told Dow Jones. "We expect to see more of these suits."

The government’s intervention may increase pressure on Columbia to settle the massive, three-year-old federal fraud investigation by the Justice Department.