BOSTON —
Dallas-based Steward Health Care, which operates several facilities across Massachusetts, is being sued by the federal government over the alleged violation of the law and for allegedly submitting false claims to Medicare, according to the Department of Justice.
Acting U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Joshua Levy announced Monday that his office filed the complaint in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts. He said the government's investigation was prompted by allegations filed in a previous whistleblower lawsuit.
In a statement, Steward said the whistleblower complaint was filed five years ago by "a former employee seeking to collect money." The company also claims that the Massachusetts Attorney General declined to pursue the case.
"We are extremely disappointed and surprised that the U.S. Attorney in Boston today filed a civil complaint alleging that a single contract that Steward entered into with a single physician violated a complex and highly technical law — the Stark Law — governing physician compensation," a Steward spokesperson wrote in a statement. "The lawsuit is without merit and a waste of taxpayer money, and suffers from clear and obvious legal defects that Steward expects to address soon through a motion to dismiss."
Levy's office said Steward's St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston violated the physician self-referral law and submitted the false claims after recruiting a cardiac surgeon, Dr. Arvind Agnihotri, in 2012 to serve as chief of cardiac...
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