Virginia hospital system agrees to $2.37M False Claims settlement

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Inova Health System Foundation, Inova Health Care Services, Inc., and Inova Physician Partners, LLC, (collectively, Inova), located in Falls Church, agreed to pay $2,378,731.06 to settle claims that it submitted claims to Medicaid that contained falsified information.

Inova voluntarily submitted written disclosures to the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Virginia Attorney General's Office. Specifically, the disclosure stated that, between Jan. 1, 2020, and Aug. 31, 2020, Inova had submitted claims to Medicaid for reimbursement, including resubmitted claims for reimbursement, for sterilization and hysterectomy procedures that contained documentation that had been improperly modified by or at the request of one or more Inova employees. These modifications resulted in the claim containing falsified information. Following an internal investigation, Inova took remedial actions and agreed that $1,585,820.71 received from Medicaid was improper.

This settlement resolves federal and state civil claims under the federal False Claims Act, Virginia Code §§ 32.1-312,32.1-313, and 8.01-216 et seq., and common law remedies.

Inova received full credit under the Justice Department's guidelines for taking disclosure, cooperation, and remediation into account in False Claims Act cases.

The resolution obtained in this matter was the result of a coordinated effort between the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, and the Office of the Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

The matter was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney John E. Beerbower and Kimberly M. Bolton, Assistant Attorney General, Virginia Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The civil claims settled are allegations only; there has been no determination of civil liability.