St. Joseph To Pay $4.9 M for Medically Unneccessary Hospital Admissions

St. Joseph Medical Center reached a settlement with the United States to pay $4.9 million after the Towson hospital submitted false claims to Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs, the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland announced on Thursday.

The hospital acknowledged that from 2007 to 2009, it admitted patients unneccessarily, particulary for short stays that were not warranted by the patients' condition, according to a news release. The admissions generated St. Joseph a larger reimbursement than was proper.

The agreement calls for $4.75 million of the settlement to be paid to the United States, and $152,406 for Maryland.

"Medical providers drain the resources of federal and state health care programs when they bill the government for unneeded medical procedures," United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein said in the release.