Healthcare Fraud is Rampant, Former CFO Pays $4.5M for Meaningful Use Fraud

Healthcare fraud has been in the news consistently over the last few years and that trend hasn't slowed down. Joe White, the CFO of a Texas based hospital chain was ordered to pay back $4.5 million in restitution for Meaningful Use (MU) fraud according to HITConsultant.net.  White ordered hospital employees as well as Shelby Regional Medical Center's EHR vendor, eCareSoft to enter paper records into their EHR system after patients had already been discharged to meet MU requirements. CMS has paid physicians over $24 billion since the incentive program began.

In January 2013, CMS reimbursed the Shelby Medical Center $785,655 for meeting MU requirements and between 2011 and 2012 the medical center was reimbursed $16,794,462.66. That is a staggering amount of money but most of those payments were false attestations. In November 2014, White also pled guilty to aggravated identity theft.

The owner of the medical center, Tariq Mahmood, MD was sentenced to 11 years in person for healthcare fraud and conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. Dr. Mahmood received $313,000 directly in Medicare reimbursements which were all falsely documented.

Summary by MedicalGroups.com

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