BOSTON – St. Vincent Hospital (St. Vincent) in Worcester has agreed to pay approximately $1.784 million to resolve allegations that it received impermissible “outlier” payments from Medicare by inflating its charges for cardiac surgical procedures and failed to fully reimburse the government for its receipt of these outlier payments after it became aware of the issue. As part of the settlement, St. Vincent admits that it received outlier payments to which it was not entitled.

Hospitals performing surgical procedures can receive reimbursement from Medicare by submitting a claim to a Medicare Administrative Contractor containing, among other information, a Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) code that identifies the procedure performed and the hospital’s costs and charges for the services and supplies provided in treating the patient. In some cases, a hospital might report having incurred extraordinarily high costs due to performing medically necessary services to address unforeseen complications for a particular patient. In such cases, where a hospital suffers losses in excess of a set threshold, Medicare will pay a hospital an “outlier” payment, in addition to the set reimbursement amount.

St. Vincent admits that between 2018 and 2019, it increased its charges for all inpatient services, including for a cardiac surgical procedure known as a Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR); once by 18%, and two more times by 15%. St. Vincent’s increased charges resulted in a greater...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMidWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lmp1c3RpY2UuZ...