PORTLAND, Maine — A southern Maine hospital has paid the government $1.5 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that it spent years overcharging for drug screenings.
Mercy Hospital struck a deal with the United States and Maine and will pay $1,514,000 to resolve claims that it violated the state and federal False Claims Acts, the federal prosecutor for Maine announced Wednesday.
The federal and state governments claimed in a lawsuit that a Westbrook recovery center run by Mercy had been overcharging Medicare and MaineCare for urine testing for years.
From 2011 to 2013, an employee of the Mercy Recovery Center billed the government insurers separately for drug tests that should have been bundled together and billed as a single claim, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
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The employee who was responsible for the overbilling no longer works for Mercy, a spokesman for the Portland-based hospital said in a statement.
The suit was filed before Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems purchased the hospital in 2013 and the overbilling stopped after the group took over, spokesman Ed Gilman added.
Mercy cooperated with federal investigators, and the U.S. Attorney’s office said the hospital has set up “enhanced internal compliance measure” in response to the overbilling.
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