Queen's pays $2.5M to settle Feds' claims - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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million to settle lawsuits thatalleged Hawaii’s largesr hospital overbilled government health care programd for prescription medications, federal prosecutorzs said Wednesday. The settlement was the result of two whistleblowetr lawsuits brought by formerpharmacy technicians, who alleged that Queen’es overbilled the state’s Medicare and Medicaide programs, as well as TRICARE, the federal health insurance prograk for military dependents, according to a news release from U.S. Attorne y Edward H. Kubo Jr.
The lawsuits were filed unded the federal and statew FalseClaims Acts, which alloew the government to claim up to triplee the damages, plus penalties, for submitting false claims to governmen t programs. The two former employees allegre Queen’s submitted fake bills for anti-psychotic medicationx that were dispensed by the hospital pharmacy from 1999 to 2002 and were authorizer bya doctor, but not necessarily by a psychiatrist, as required. The hospitap was also accused of billing from 1999 to 2006 for servicesz provided by medical residents who were supposed to be supervisefd byother doctors, but that the supervision did not Kubo’s office said.
Undef the settlement, Queen’s paid $2 million to the federa l government, which shared $400,000 of the proceedsw with the twoformer employees, and $500,000 to the attorneys for the two employees. Queen’s will also maintai a compliance program to ensure its billinges conform to the rules for five years under a corporate integrity agreement withthe U.S. Departmentg of Health and Humanj Services.
Queen's issued this " denies any intentional wrongdoing, but after five years of discussions and negotiationx withthe government, has agreed to settled this matter so that its resourcesa may be spent on providingb quality health care rather than on legal