A public hospital system in Florida was found to have violated the Stark Statute and False Claims Act, and agreed to settle with the government for their misbehavior.

North Broward Hospital made it a sweet deal for doctors who referred patients to them, which violates the Stark Statute. The law does not allow doctors who have a financial relationship with a hospital to refer Medicare or Medicaid patients to them, and hospitals are not allowed to submit claims from these illegal referrals. Hospitals are not allowed to pay physicians to give them referrals or generate business, and physicians are not allowed to accept any payment that would encourage them to make such a referral. The hospital settled for $69.5 million after another physician acted as a whistleblower and alerted the authorities.

Unfortunately they are not alone in this behavior. Last year another Florida health system, the Halifax Hospital Medical Center and Halifax Staffing in Daytona Beach, paid the government $85 million after they were accused of submitting Medicare claims that violated these referral laws.

Benjamin C. Mizer, who heads the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said “…those relationships can alter a physician’s judgment about the patient’s true health care needs and drive up health care costs for everybody.”

Hopefully this news will at least end this practice at this hospital, and deter other health systems from doing the same. If a financial incentive caused even just one patient to be mistreated or misdiagnosed it would be one too many.