The California flag flies above City Hall in Santa Monica, California February 6, 2009. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
(Reuters) - A county-managed health plan and three health care providers in Ventura County, California, have agreed to pay a total of $70.7 million to the state and the federal government to settle claims that they overbilled the state's Medicaid program.
Three separate settlements, announced Thursday, resolve claims that the defendants submitted improper bills for patients covered by the state's 2014 Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act in order to avoid returning funds to the federal government.
The county's Gold Coast Health Plan will pay $17.2 million to the federal government, and the county itself, which operates the health system Ventura County Medical Center, will pay $29 million. Non-profit hospital operator Dignity Health will pay $10.8 million to the federal government and $1.2 million to California, and non-profit community health center operator Clinicas del Camino Real will pay $11.25 million to federal government and $1.25 million to the state.
"Medicaid is a taxpayer-funded program that exists to help patients afford health care, and it never should be used to line the pockets of health care providers through fraudulent schemes," said Acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie Christensen for the Central District of California in a statement.
Clinicas CEO Gagan Pawar said in a statement that the health center did not believe it had done anything...
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