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Thursday, April 23, 2026

Cottage, Sansum, CenCal Health, CHC Ordered to Pay Up for False ... - Santa Barbara Edhat

By the Department of Justice

A county organized health system (COHS) that arranges services for Medi-Cal enrollees in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties and three Central Coast health care providers have agreed to pay a total of $68 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act and the California False Claims Act by submitting or causing the submission of false claims to Medi-Cal related to Medicaid Adult Expansion under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The four entities that entered into settlement agreements with the United States and the State of California are the Santa Barbara San Luis Obispo Regional Health Authority, doing business as CenCal Health, a COHS that contracts to arrange for the provision of health care services under Medi-Cal, which is California’s Medicaid program; Cottage Health System, a not-for-profit hospital network operating in Santa Barbara County; Sansum Clinic, a non-profit outpatient clinic operating in Santa Barbara County; and Community Health Centers of the Central Coast (CHC), a non-profit community health center operating in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

The settlement agreements were executed earlier this month, and late Wednesday a federal judge unsealed the “whistleblower” case naming the entities.

Pursuant to the ACA, beginning in January 2014, Medi-Cal was expanded to cover the previously uninsured “Adult Expansion” population – adults between the ages of 19 and 64...



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