The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts claims that Steward Health Care System violated the False Claims Act when it recruited a cardiac surgeon and paid him more if he increased the number of cardiovascular surgeries at one of the health system’s Boston hospitals.
Prompted by a whistleblower, the government alleges that between 2013 and 2022, Steward Medical Group paid the Chief of Cardiac Surgery at St Elizabeth’s Medical Center, Dr. Arvind Agnihotri, an amount that far exceeded fair market value and included an incentive compensation. It also claims that his compensation considered the volume or value of his referrals to the hospital.
Steward Health Care System, which is one of the nation’s largest for-profit health systems, owns both Steward Medical Group and St. Elizabeth’s. Government prosecutors accuse the system of violating the Stark Law, which was created to prevent physicians’ financial relationships from impacting decision-making for Medicare patients. Referrals should be based on what is best for the patient rather than what makes the involved parties the most money. The law prevents the hospital from billing Medicare for services referred by a physician with whom the hospital has an improper financial relationship in an effort to reduce the overutilization of services and increased costs.
The government claims that SMG’s payments to Agnihotri varied with the number of surgeries he referred to SEMC and that the group paid him $4,868,500 in incentives...
As a healthcare worker in Pennsylvania, I’m writing to urge our state senators to reject the False Claims Act legislation. While this bill is being advertised as a way to reduce fraud in our healt...