NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) — Three hospitals in the Mount Sinai Health System will pay a total of $2.95 million after allegations of violating the federal and New York False Claims Acts, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman has announced.
The entities involved are Mount Sinai Beth Israel (formerly Beth Israel Medical Center), Mount Sinai St. Luke’s (formerly St. Luke’s Hospital) and Mount Sinai Roosevelt (formerly Roosevelt Hospital) (together, the “Hospitals”) – and the Hospitals’ former partnership group, Continuum Health Partners Inc. (“Continuum,” and together with the Hospitals, “Defendants”).
According to allegations, the hospitals knowingly kept more than $844,000 in Medicaid overpayments that should have gone back to the government.
“Repaying Medicaid for false claims is not only vital to the integrity of the program, but it is also the law,” Schneiderman said. “We will not allow hospitals to drain important resources from the system, and will continue to ensure that the program is properly reimbursed for the funds that it is owed.”
The case occurred due to a whistleblower lawsuit. The whistleblower will receive $354,000 from the state as a reward.
“Taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for waste, fraud and abuse of Medicaid. We will continue to partner with Attorney General Schneiderman in rooting out corruption in the Medicaid system,” State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli said.