Bristol Hospital has agreed to pay part of a $157,830 civil settlement with the Justice Department for improperly accepting patients referred to them by a physicians’ group.
The settlement also involved Bristol Gastroenterology Associates (BGA) and was centered on improper billing to Medicare from 2006 to 2009, the Connecticut U.S. Attorney’s office said Tuesday.
During that time period BGA occupied a medical office suite owned by Bristol Hospital without paying any rent and without a written lease, authorities said.Â
In Jan. 2008, the hospital and BGA entered into a written lease, but the hospital failed to collect rent from BGA for an additional 18 months, until Aug. 2009.Â
During that time BGA was regularly referring Medicare patients to Bristol Hospital and the hospital was submitting claims to Medicare for those patients, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
The federal Stark Law, however, prohibits physicians from referring patients to hospitals with whom they have an improper financial arrangement. A leasing arrangement is improper under the Stark Law without a signed written lease.
Bristol Hospital and BGA have agreed to pay the $157,830 settlement, but did not admit wrongdoing, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
In a statement, Bristol Hospital said it paid $97,830 of the settlement “in order to settle this investigation and prevent further expenditure of time and legal expense associated with extensive production of documents and emails and proceeding with lengthy and expensive litigation versus the cost of settlement.”
