Halifax’s former director of physician services, Elin Baklid-Kunz, filed suit in 2009, claiming the health system’s physicians admitted patients for unnecessary procedures and improperly collected Medicare payments. The Department of Justice joined the suit in September 2011.
In his order, Judge Thomas B. Smith wrote that two emails between the hospital’s finance and legal departments showed “that Halifax was engaged in or about to be engaged in fraudulent conduct” when it sought legal advice, according to the report.
Officials from Halifax Health have denied any wrongdoing. They said the court’s order to release the internal documents is based on “unproven allegations and does not reflect any judicial findings of fact or law regarding the merits of the allegations,” according to the report. Halifax lawyers argued the documents were protected due to attorney-client privilege.
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