Andrew Cuomo Accuses Hospitals of Kickbacks, Fraud

January 5, 2009


New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo accuses hospitals of kickbacks, fraud


ALBANY — New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is suing seven hospitals, accusing them in some cases of rounding up the homeless and paying kickbacks to get more inpatient detox patients into their drug treatment beds.

The civil lawsuit filed in October accuses the hospitals of fraudulently billing Medicaid for more than $50 million.

Cuomo says the hospitals engaged in a kickback scheme with Missouri-based SpecialCare Hospital Management Corp., to refer patients to the hospitals’ detox units.

The company didn’t immediately comment.

The state says the hospitals weren’t licensed to provide the inpatient detox services, so they weren’t entitled to Medicaid reimbursement for thousands of patients they treated.

The lawsuit was first reported by The New York Post.

http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20090105/NEWS01/90105009/1002/rss



What a nice way to get your name in the news now, espcially when the lawsuit was filed 3 months ago.