Hospital Chain to Pay $4.7 Million
A psychiatric hospital chain has agreed to pay $4.7 million to settle charges that it illegally collected millions of dollars in Medicare payments off elderly patients with brain disorders, the Justice Department said. Charter Behavioral Health Systems Inc. and Charter Hospital of St. Louis Inc., which did business in the Orlando, Fla., area as Charter Hospital Orlando-South, fraudulently admitted and extended the length of psychiatric stays for hundreds of patients to obtain Medicare reimbursements, the department said. Many of the patients were residents of nursing homes or assisted living facilities.
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