Nine hospitals located in Alabama, Indiana, Florida, South Carolina, New York and Minnesota will pay the United States over $9.4 million to resolve claims that they submitted false claims to Medicare through their kyphoplasty procedure practices.  Seven of the nine health care facilities were named as defendants in a False Claims Act lawsuit filed in 2008 by whistleblowers Craig Patrick and Charles Bates.  Mr. Patrick and Mr. Bates will receive approximately $1.5 million of the settlement proceeds. 

Kyphoplasty is a procedure used to treat certain spinal fractures and can often be safely performed as an out-patient procedure.  Allegedly, the hospitals performed the procedure on a more expensive in-patient basis so they could increase their Medicare billings. 

This settlement comes after two settlements in 2009 that the government reached with nine other hospitals for Medicare fraud allegations related to kyphoplasty.  The government also reached a settlement in 2008 with Medtronic Spine LLC to resolve allegations that the company inappropriately counseled hospitals to perform kyphoplasty as an in-patient procedure. 

Click here to read the full article, “Nine Hospitals in Seven States to Pay U.S. More Than $9.4 Million to Resolve False Claims Act Allegations Related to Kyphoplasty”