Hospital service provider TeamHealth Holdings has agreed to pay $60 million plus interest to settle allegations that a fellow physician services company it recently acquired knowingly overcharged several federal health care programs, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday.
According to the Justice Department, IPC Healthcare Inc. allegedly violated the False Claims Act by billing Medicare, Medicaid, the Defense Health Agency and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program for more expensive medical services than were actually performed, a practice known as up-coding. Like other so-called hospitalist groups, IPC, based in North Hollywood, California, had contracts with hospitals and other inpatient facilities in a number of states to provide doctors and other health care professionals to staff emergency rooms and other hospital departments.
