ChristianaCare pays to resolve health care fraud allegations.
ChristianaCare paid $42.5 million to resolve fraud allegations made under the federal False Claims Act and the Delaware False Claims and Reporting Act, U.S. Attorney David Weiss announced. While the settlement resolves the case, no determination of liability was made against ChristianaCare.
A complaint was filed under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act in 2017 by ChristianaCare’s former chief compliance officer.
It was alleged ChristianaCare provided illegal payment to non-employee neonatologists and surgeons through services from ancillary support providers, including nurse practitioners to inpatients at ChristianaCare hospitals.
The lawsuit alleged service the ancillary support providers impermissibly sought to induce neonatologists and surgeons to refer patients to ChristianaCare hospitals.
That in turn created financial relationships between the nonemployee providers and ChristianaCare.
It’s alleged that claims to government-funded healthcare programs – including Medicare and Medicaid – for the care provided to the referred patients during hospitalization violated the Stark Law which is the anti-kickback statute and physician self-referral law.
