Simi Valley hospital settles Medicare fraud claim
Simi Valley Hospital has paid the U.S. government $5.15 million to settle an allegation that the hospital filed false Medicare claims, the Department of Justice announced Nov. 3.
With the settlement finalized, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, which was filed in October 2001 by a former hospital employee turned whistleblower.
The suit alleged that between 1991 and 1997, Simi Valley Hospital improperly billed Medicare and Medi-Cal for psychiatric care to ineligible patients, and for $12,000 a month in payments to a medical director to work on a program that did not actually exist.
Simi Valley Hospital paid the settlement without admitting any wrongdoing, the Department of Justice said.
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