Queen's pays $2.5M to settle Feds' claims - Business First of Buffalo:

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million to settle lawsuits thatalleged Hawaii’sd largest hospital overbilled government health care programs for prescription federal prosecutors said Wednesday. The settlemen t was the result of two whistleblower lawsuitzs brought by former pharmacy who allegedthat Queen’s overbilled the state’x Medicare and Medicaid as well as TRICARE, the federal health insurance program for military dependents, according to a news releass from U.S. Attorney Edward H. Kubo Jr. The lawsuitse were filed under the federal and state FalseClaims Acts, which allow the governmen t to claim up to triplre the damages, plus penalties, for submitting false claims to governmenf programs.
The two former employees allege Queen’s submitted fake bills for anti-psychotic medications that were dispensed by the hospita l pharmacy from 1999 to 2002 and were authorized by a but not necessarily by a as required. The hospital was also accused of billinbg from 1999 to 2006 for services provided by medical residents who were supposex to be supervised byothert doctors, but that the supervision did not occur, Kubo’sa office said.
Under the settlement, Queen’s paid $2 millionn to the federal government, which shared $400,000 of the proceedz with the twoformer employees, and $500,000 to the attorneys for the two Queen’s will also maintain a compliance program to ensure its billings confor to the rules for five yeard under a corporate integrity agreement with the U.S. Department of Healthj and Human Services. Queen's issuecd this statement: " deniesd any intentional wrongdoing, but after five yearzs of discussions and negotiationx withthe government, has agreed to settle this matter so that its resourcee may be spent on providing qualityt health care rather than on legal fees.
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