The Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati and its former member hospital, The Christ Hospital, will pay the United States $108 million to resolve claims that they violated the Anti-Kickback Statute and the False Claims Act.

Allegedly, The Christ Hospital encouraged cardiologists to refer patients to their facilities by limiting the opportunity to work at their Heart Station to those cardiologists who made such referrals and rewarded doctors with high referral rates by giving them greater percentages of time at the station.  Working at the Heart Station enables doctors to generate additional income by billing for the patients they treat there.

The government maintains that this pay-to-play scheme violated the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits hospitals from offering a physician anything of value in return for patient referrals.  The government also alleges that the claims submitted to Medicare and Medicaid as a result of the kickback scheme violated the False Claims Act.

This lawsuit was filed by a whistleblower under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act.  The whistleblower, Dr. Harry Fry, a cardiologist who was a former employee at The Christ Hospital, will receive $23.5 million from the settlement. 

Click here to read the full article, “The Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati and The Christ Hospital to Pay $108 Million for Violating Anti-Kickback Statute and Defrauding Medicare and Medicaid”