Florida Hospital owner admits it violated federal law

Orlando Sentinel ^ | 5/28/2014 | Marni Jameson

[wonkowasright]

Adventist Health System, which owns Florida Hospital, acknowledged in financial documents that its pay arrangements with some doctors broke federal law.

The nonprofit health system, which owns seven hospitals in Central Florida and 44 nationwide, told the U.S. Department of Justice that it violated the federal Stark Law, which prohibits doctors and hospitals to have agreements that allow doctors to gain financially from referring patients to the hospital for tests or procedures.

...

Settlement talks for the second part of the case, which alleges the hospital engaged in a pattern of unnecessary hospital admissions for more than a decade, will be held in Orlando Thursday.

[wonkowasright]

Whoopsie....

[wonkowasright]

"Everything we're able to say about this is in our audited financial statement," he said. "We have been open with the Department of Justice."

So they've been open with DOJ but are heck bent not to be open with anyone else.

The Road To Wellville

[17th Miss Regt]

This particular hospital system has a long history of doing these types of things.

[The Antiyuppie]

Gee, I thought that this was BAU (Business as Usual) in that field...

[kelly4c]

And unfortunately since I moved to a different town a few years ago an Adventist one happens to be the local hospital:( I don’t care much for them as it is. I had to use their emregency room twice and both times there was nobody at the front desks. I was left to tap on a window and try to get the attention of a couple people chatting away in the BACK. The 2nd time I went (For severe dizziness)I almost passed out and probably wouldn’t have been found in the waiting room until another patient walked in and brought it to someone’s dang attention. I was used to and really liked the hospital we had in our old town that we used for 16 years.