Sutter Health has agreed to pay more than $13 million to settle allegations of improper payment practices, according to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California.
Federal investigators allege the Sacramento, California-based government nonprofit health programs billed thousands of lab tests it failed to perform, in violation of the Act. Federal False Complaint. The tests in question are urine toxicity tests performed between August 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017, for which Sutter received payment from the Union Employee Health Benefits Program state, Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare.
Sutter, not admitting any liability, paid out more than $6.5 million of the $13 million in payments. It will pay the remaining balance in the following month.
“When health care providers charge federal health care programs for services that other providers actually perform, the integrity of these programs is impaired. Working with our law enforcement partners, we will continue to root out and investigate such schemes,” said Steven Ryan, special agent in charge of the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services. know in a press release.
