Carolinas HealthCare pays $6.5M to settle federal lawsuit
Carolinas HealthCare System agreed Friday to pay $6.5 million to settle a federal lawsuit that the company violated the False Claims Act by “up-coding” claims for urine drug tests in order to receive higher payment than allowed for the tests.
Also participating in the legal action were Josh Stein, North Carolina’s attorney general, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
According to court documents, from 2011 to 2015, the health-care system conducted urine drug tests, categorized as “moderate complexity” tests by the Food and Drug Administration. However, it submitted claims that indicated the company had conducted “high complexity” tests.
Claims submitted to federal health care programs include a code that identifies the services provided and that triggers a certain payment, typically at least $100 for the high complexity test compared with the $20 cost for the moderate complexity one.
Read more: http://www.journalnow.com/business/business_news/local/the-briefcase-carolinas-healthcare-pays-m-to-settle-federal-lawsuit/article_95e8286e-4f8d-5482-946d-79652376c713.html