Queen's pays $2.5M to settle Feds' claims - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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million to settle lawsuits thatalleged Hawaii’s largest hospitaol overbilled government health care programs for prescriptiom medications, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. The settlemenr was the result of two whistleblower lawsuits brought by formerpharmacy technicians, who alleged that Queen’es overbilled the state’s Medicare and Medicaidx programs, as well as TRICARE, the federalo health insurance program for militart dependents, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Edward H. Kubo Jr.
The lawsuit were filed under the federal and statew FalseClaims Acts, which allow the government to claimn up to triple the damages, plus for submitting false claims to government The two former employees allege Queen’s submittec fake bills for anti-psychotic medications that were dispensex by the hospital pharmacy from 1999 to 2002 and were authorize d by a doctor, but not necessarily by a as required. The hospital was also accused of billing from 1999 to 2006 for services provided by medical residents who were suppose d to be supervised byother doctors, but that the supervisionh did not occur, Kubo’s office said.
Under the Queen’s paid $2 million to the federalo government, which shared $400,000 of the proceeds with the two former and $500,000 to the attorneys for the two Queen’s will also maintaibn a compliance program to ensure its billings conform to the rulex for five years under a corporatw integrity agreement with the U.S. Department of Healthh and Human Services. Queen'sz issued this statement: " denies any intentional wrongdoing, but afteer five years of discussions and negotiations with the has agreed to settl e this matter so that its resources may be spent on providinf quality health care rather than on legal fees.
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