A lawsuit claims 62 Indiana hospitals fraudulently received more than $300 million from the federal government by overbilling patients for the release of their electronic health records and falsified their meaningful use attestations.
According to the South Bend Tribune, two malpractice lawyers filed the suit last year after finding it difficult to obtain records from the hospitals. The suit alleged that hospitals may have claimed to fulfill record requests within the required period of three business days, but in reality, rarely did so.
This would be in violation of the HITECH Act as well as a false claims case, as the hospitals received federal grants on the basis of fulfilling those release requests within three days. Additionally, the suit said hospitals violated the Anti-Kickback Statute by allowing a third-party company to “routinely and repeatedly” overbill patients for access to their records.
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John joined TriMed in 2016, focusing on healthcare policy and regulation. After graduating from Columbia College Chicago, he worked at FM News Chicago and Rivet News Radio, and worked on the state government and politics beat for the Illinois Radio Network. Outside of work, you may find him adding to his never-ending graphic novel collection.