ATLANTA
A major U.S. hospital chain, Tenet Healthcare Corporation, and two of its Atlanta-area subsidiaries will pay over $513 million to resolve criminal charges and civil claims relating to a scheme to defraud the federal government and to pay kickbacks in exchange for patient referrals, officials announced Monday.
In addition, two Tenet subsidiaries, Atlanta Medical Center Inc. and North Fulton Medical Center Inc., have agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud the federal government. They will pay health care kickbacks and bribes in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute, officials said.
The plea agreements remain subject to acceptance by the court.
The case was filed under the federal False Claims Act, and the whistleblower will get more than $84 million as a result of the settlement, according to officials.
As alleged in the criminal information as well as civil complaints, filed by the department and the state of Georgia in 2014 and 2013, Atlanta Medical Center Inc., North Fulton Medical Center Inc., Spalding Regional Medical Center Inc. and Hilton Head Hospital paid bribes and kickbacks to the owners and operators of prenatal care clinics.
The clinics were serving primarily undocumented Hispanic women in return for the referral of those patients for labor and delivery medical services at Tenet hospitals, according to officials.
These kickbacks and bribes allegedly helped Tenet obtain more than $145 million in Medicaid and Medicare funds based on the resulting patient referrals.
According to the criminal information, as part of the scheme, expectant mothers were in some cases told the following:
The prenatal care clinics that Medicaid would cover the costs associated with their childbirth and the care of their newborn only if they delivered at one of the Tenet hospitals, officials said.
In other cases, they were simply told that they were required to deliver at one of the Tenet hospitals, leaving them with the false belief that they could not select the hospital of their choice, according to authorities.
The criminal information alleges that as a result of these false and misleading statements and representations, many expectant mothers traveled long distances from their homes to deliver at the Tenet hospitals, placing their health and safety, and that of their newborn babies, at risk, officials.
Up until April 2016, Atlanta Medical Center Inc. and North Fulton Medical Center Inc. owned and operated acute-care hospitals located in the greater Atlanta metropolitan area, according to authorities.
“Our Medicaid system is premised on a patient’s ability to make an informed choice about where to seek care without undue interference from those seeking to make a profit,” said U.S. Attorney John Horn. “Tenet cheated the Medicaid system by paying bribes and kickbacks to a pre-natal clinic to unlawfully refer over 20,000 Medicaid patients to the hospitals. In so doing, they exploited some of the most vulnerable members of our community and took advantage of a payment system designed to ensure that underprivileged patients have choices in receiving care.”
“When pregnant women seek medical advice, they deserve to receive care untainted by bribes and illegal kickbacks,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Bitkower.
Adding, “The Tenet case is the first brought through the assistance of the Criminal Division’s corporate health care fraud strike force. This is one of more than a dozen active corporate investigations by the strike force, and we are committed to following evidence of health care fraud wherever it leads – whether it be individual physicians, pharmacy owners or corporate boardrooms.”
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 health care programs.
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 federal government – 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.
Tenet Health System Medical Inc. and its subsidiaries, collectively known as THSM, 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.
THSM is the parent company of Atlanta Medical Center Inc., North Fulton Medical Center Inc., Spalding Regional Medical Center Inc. and Hilton Head Hospital, and employed their executives.
THSM is a subsidiary of Tenet Healthcare Corporation. Under the terms of the NPA, THSM and Tenet will avoid prosecution if they, among other requirements, cooperate with the government’s ongoing investigation and enhance their compliance and ethics program and internal controls.
Tenet has also agreed to retain an independent compliance monitor to address and reduce the risk of any recurrence of violations of the AKS by any entity owned in whole, or in part, by Tenet. The term of THSM’s and Tenet’s obligations under the NPA is three years, but the NPA may be extended for up to one year.
In the civil settlement, Tenet agreed to pay $368 million to the federal government, the state of Georgia and the state of South Carolina to resolve legal claims filed under False Claims Acts or whistleblowers law.
The acts permit whistleblowers to file suit for false claims against the government entities and to share in any recovery.
The federal share of the civil settlement is $244.2 million, the state of Georgia will recover $122.8 million and the state of South Carolina will recover $892,125.
The whistleblower Ralph D. Williams, a Georgia resident, will get the combined civil settlement amount is approximately $84.4 million for bringing this to light in through the courts, according to officials.