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Prosecutors say Community Health Network referred patients to outside surgery centers to save them money but then billed Medicare and Medicaid as if the surgeries were performed at its hospitals.
stock photoINDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Federal prosecutors have reached a $20.3 million civil settlement with Community Health Network to resolve allegations of overbilling for surgeries.
Prosecutors say the Indianapolis-based health system referred patients to outside surgery centers to save them money but then billed Medicare and Medicaid as if the surgeries were performed at its hospitals.
They say the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services notified hospitals in November 2007 that services provided at outside centers should be billed at the lower outside rates, but Community Health continued overbilling until Oct. 1, 2009.
Community Health President and CEO Bryan Mills says the matter was "an innocent and unintentional billing error" at most.
Community Health operates eight hospitals in Indianapolis, Anderson and Kokomo and more than 200 care sites in and around those cities.
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