The Dept. of Justice announced on March 6 that it has intervened in a whistleblower suit against Community Health Systems Inc. (CHS) and three of its hospitals in New Mexico.
The suit alleges that CHS and the hospitals violated the False Claims Act by knowingly causing to be presented to the United States false claims for federal matching Medicaid funds.
The New Mexico hospitals claimed payments under that state’s version of Medicaid’s “disproportionate share” (DSH) payment program, through which the federal government matches state and local funds to provide extra money to hospitals that treat a “disproportionate share” of low-income patients.
The whistleblower, Robert Baker, is represented by Peter W. Chatfield of the law firm of Phillips & Cohen LLP.