PLANO, Texas - Gainesville Hospital District d/b/a North Texas Medical Center will pay the United States $1,320,000 to resolve concerns surrounding payment arrangements with a physician, announced United States Attorney Joseph D. Brown.
“The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas is pleased that North Texas Medical Center voluntarily self-disclosed potential health care compliance concerns," said U.S. Attorney Brown. “We continue to encourage health care providers to proactively identify and disclose compliance concerns to our office. This process is almost always more efficient and less costly than defending enforcement actions."
On Sep. 26, 2017, North Texas Medical Center made a submission pursuant to OIG-HHS’s Self Disclosure Protocol. North Texas Medical Center then made a similar submission to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas seeking resolution under the federal False Claims Act.
Based on these self-disclosures, the United States agreed to resolve potential claims arising from remuneration paid by North Texas Medical Center to Dr. Ramin Roufeh that was allegedly above fair market value, not commercially reasonable, and/or not appropriately memorialized in writing. The United States contended that at least one purpose of the remuneration provided by North Texas Medical Center to Dr. Roufeh was to induce the referral of federal health care program patients and that the remuneration induced such referrals in violation of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7b(b)(2).
This matter was investigated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services - Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG) and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas. The civil settlement was negotiated by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua M. Russ.
The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only; there has been no determination of liability. #
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
