U.S. sues former Tenet top lawyer
The U.S. government said Tuesday that it had sued Tenet Healthcare Corp.’s former top lawyer for billing Medicare for millions of dollars for hospital care that she allegedly knew the company was not entitled to collect.
The suit contends that in 1997 and 1998, Christi Sulzbach, then general counsel for the hospital chain, certified to the Department of Health and Human Services that Tenet was in compliance with federal rules, even though she knew that one of its Florida hospitals had contracts with physicians that violated the so-called Stark Statute.
That federal law prohibits hospitals from billing Medicare, the healthcare program for seniors, for referrals from physicians who have certain financial relationships with the facilities.
At the time Sulzbach signed the certifications, the government contends, Tenet’s outside lawyers had concluded that the contracts between physicians and the North Ridge Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale violated the Stark law.
Tenet settled with the government in 2004 for $22.5 million but admitted no wrongdoing. The Department of Justice said the agreement did not release Sulzbach’s liability. She could not be reached for comment.
