ATLANTA (Legal Newsline) - Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens has announced Tenet Healthcare Corporation (Tenet) and many of its subsidiaries will pay more than $513 million over allegations of an illegal kickback scheme. Georgia will receive $110 million as its share of the settlement.
According to claims, Tenet paid kickbacks to Clinica de la Mama, an obstetric clinic serving mostly undocumented Hispanic women, enticing the organization to refer patients to its hospitals.
“Tenet took advantage of vulnerable pregnant women in clear violation of the law by paying kickbacks in order to bring their referrals to Tenet hospitals,” Olens said. “Through this scheme, Tenet defrauded the Georgia Medicaid program by hundreds of millions of dollars.”
The state of Georgia handled the case along with the U. S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia and the commercial litigation branch of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Division.
“On behalf of the Department of Community Health and the Georgia Medicaid program, I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to the U.S. Attorneys Office, Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens and Attorney General Olens' Medicaid Fraud Control Unit under the leadership of Van Pearlberg, for their diligent efforts to pursue justice in this case,” Department of Community Health Commissioner Clyde Reese said.