Thursday, November 23, 2006
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Whistle-blowers tipped off the government to 1.3 billion worth of fraud cases over the last year, largely at hospitals or other health care providers, the Justice Department said Tuesday.
In all, the department recovered 3.1 billion in settlements -- what prosecutors said was a record amount -- from individuals and companies during the 2006 fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.
"Many of these cases were initiated by whistle-blowers," said Assistant Attorney General Peter D. Keisler, who oversees the department's civil division.
He called the 1.3 billion identified by whistle-blowers a recovery level "probably greater than most years, smaller than a couple." In return, whistle-blowers were paid 190 million over the year for alerting the government to the fraud.
The single largest settlement, worth 920 million, came against Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp., the nation's second-largest hospital chain. Following claims from six whistle-blowers, prosecutors accused Tenet of overbilling the government for 806 million in Medicare payments, and paying 49 million in kickbacks to doctors who referred patients to the health care chain.