The U.S. Justice Department has intervened in a False Claims Act lawsuit against North Hollywood, Calif.-based IPC the Hospitalist Company, alleging the hospitalist staffing company knowingly overbilled federal healthcare programs.
The suit claims IPC physicians engaged in "upcoding," or billing for a more complicated and more expensive procedure than what was actually performed. The lawsuit also alleges IPC trained their physicians to bill at the highest level possible, and encouraged physicians with lower billings to upcode to catch up with revenues generated by the company's other physicians.
The whistle-blower suit was originally filed by a former IPC physician. Now that the Justice Department has intervened, the government will file its own complaint against the IPC and related defendants.
IPC employs approximately 2,000 physicians who work in hospitals in 28 states.
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