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Defendant Pays $2 Million in False Claims Act Violations
Ravishanker Mallapuram, a principal of Doctor’s Hospital 1997 L.P., doing business as United Memorial Medical Center LLC (UMMC), has agreed to pay $2 million to resolve alleged False Claims Act violations for claiming excessive cost outlier payments from government health care programs and for double billing the government for COVID-19 tests.
According to the settlement agreement between UMMC and the United States, the settlement funds will be paid by Mallapuram and UMMC has guaranteed the payment of those funds.
“Hospitals and other providers who participate in federal health care programs have an obligation to the taxpayers to ensure that they are billing appropriately,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton, head of the Civil Division.
The allegations against UMMC include submitting claims for cost outlier payments by rapidly increasing its charges for inpatient care and underreporting its charges on Medicare cost reports, thereby preventing the government health care programs from adjusting those charges so that they would reasonably reflect UMMC’s actual costs.
Additionally, UMMC has agreed to settle allegations that it submitted claims to the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Uninsured Program for COVID-19 testing services, despite being reimbursed for those same services by either the State of Texas or the City of Houston.
“This over $2 million settlement is significant,” said U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani for the Southern District of Texas. “We depend upon medical providers to be good stewards of a community’s healthcare services and of the federally funded programs that pay for those services.
Hospitals and executives who run them should prioritize accurate, lawful billing of Medicare and other taxpayer-funded health care programs at all times,” said Special Agent in Charge Jason E. Meadows of the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG).
The Department of Defense (DOD) Office of Inspector General’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) is committed to rooting out fraud schemes that waste valuable taxpayer resources intended for the healthcare of our service members, military retirees and their families,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Gregory P. Shilling of the DCIS Southern Field Office.
Key Facts
- State: Texas
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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