The federal government has filed a suit against Kernan Hospital, an orthopedic and rehabilitation hospital in Baltimore, over allegations that it improperly billed Medicare and Medicaid for a severe form of malnutrition, according to a Baltimore Sun report.
The suit claims the hospital falsely manipulated its billing system to make it seem as though patients had kwashiorkor when medical evidence did not support that diagnosis.
The suit says secondary diagnosis of kwashiorkor at Kernan rose from zero cases in 2004 to 287 cases in 2007, according to the report.
A spokesperson for the University of Maryland Medical System, which owns Kernan, said the system does not agree with the government’s charges. The official also said there are “a variety of reasons” why orthopedic and rehabilitation patients at Kernan may experience malnutrition.
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