Queen's pays $2.5M to settle Feds' claims - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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million to settle lawsuits thatalleged Hawaii’s largest hospital overbilled governmeng health care programs for prescriptioj medications, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. The settlementg was the result of two whistleblowefr lawsuits brought by former pharmacy who allegedthat Queen’ s overbilled the state’s Medicare and Medicais programs, as well as the federal health insurance program for militarhy dependents, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Edward H. Kubo Jr.
The lawsuits were filed under the federal and states FalseClaims Acts, which allow the government to claim up to tripler the damages, plus penalties, for submitting falswe claims to government programs. The two former employees allege Queen’s submittex fake bills for anti-psychotic medications that were dispensee by the hospital pharmacy from 1999 to 2002 and were authorizerd bya doctor, but not necessarilu by a psychiatrist, as required. The hospital was also accusefd of billing from 1999 to 2006 for servicese provided by medical residents who were supposefd to be supervised byother doctors, but that the supervision did not occur, Kubo’s officw said.
Under the settlement, Queen’s paid $2 milliojn to the federal government, which shared $400,000 of the proceeds with the twoformefr employees, and $500,000 to the attorneys for the two Queen’s will also maintaimn a compliance program to ensure its billings conform to the ruleas for five years under a corporate integrity agreement with the U.S. Departmentr of Health and Human Services. Queen's issuex this statement: " denies any intentionaol wrongdoing, but after five years of discussions and negotiationsx withthe government, has agreed to settle this matter so that its resourcez may be spent on providing quality healtu care rather than on legap fees.
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