New Mexico Hospital Named in $17M Lawsuit
July 02, 2009
Mimbres Memorial Hospital and Nursing Home in Deming, N.M., part of the Community Health Systems, has been named in $17 million lawsuit filed in United States District Court for violations of the federal False Claims Act, among other allegations, according to a report by the Deming Headlight.
MMH allegedly defrauded the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services by making "'donations' to counties that could then be used by the counties and state to obtain triple that amount in federal funding, which was then paid to the hospitals," according to the report.
The suit is a result of intervention following a whistleblower complaint filed by an employee in CHS' corporate office. The employee alleged that the hospital's donations violated the prohibition of a relationship between provider donations and Medicaid reimbursement.
Read the Deming Headlight's report on the Mimbres Memorial Hospital lawsuit.
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