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By Henry J. Evans Jr.
Cape Gazette staff
Beebe Medical Center and two physicians who had a relationship with the hospital in the late 1990s have agreed to pay $1 million to settle a Medicare regulation dispute. The government announced the settlement Monday, March 20.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas E. McCann said the dispute was about an arrangement between the hospital and doctors Richard Caruso and Vinod Parasher, who performed procedures at the medical center rather than at a freestanding clinic they owned.
The investigation, which began in 1999, involved the U.S. Department of Health and Social Services, the Office of Inspector General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Under the terms of the settlement, the hospital paid $800,000 and the doctors $100,000 each. McCann said the settlement represents approximately the amount the hospital and doctors received for services during the working relationship.
Federal investigators said the doctors were paid a fee by the hospital from Medicare reimbursements, in addition to money they received from the government for performing services.
McCann said the payments violated sections of the False Claims Act. The provision had gone into effect a year earlier and prohibited doctors from being paid for referring cases to hospitals where they had a financial relationship.
McCann said there is a substantial quantity of information to know in the rules and regulations controlling Medicare reimbursement. However, he said, the hospital and doctors had access to the necessary information. “They had the cart before the horse for nine months while working with a medical consultant,” McCann said.
Edmund “Dan” Lyons Jr., Caruso’s attorney said Medicare reimbursement laws are complex and his client “tripped over the fine print.”
Lyons said it is important to note that the case does not involve fraud, the intent to commit fraud, procedures that had not been performed, procedures performed unnecessarily or falsifying information.
“This is a very technical area of law,” Lyons said Wednesday, March 22.
Beebe Medical Center President and CEO Jeffrey Fried said the hospital essentially gave up the money it would have made for performing the procedures.
He said the $800,000 settlement paid by the hospital comes off the medical center’s balance sheet. He said in anticipation of settling the dispute, the hospital had set aside the money.
Fried said the terms of the settlement offered by the government were fair, because there were no additional fines, penalties or fees.
“We’re just glad to put it behind us,” Fried said.
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