Providence Health & Services Washington has agreed to pay $22,690,458 to resolve allegations that it fraudulently billed Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health care programs for medically unnecessary neurosurgery procedures. Providence St. Mary’s paid neurosurgeons based on a productivity metric that provided them a financial incentive to perform more surgical procedures of greater complexity. The settlement says two neurosurgeons at the hospital performed surgeries on candidates who were not appropriate, created an excessive level of complications and negative outcomes, and failed to document properly. Read a news story from the Union-Bulletin and a Department of Justice press release.
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