November 11, 2008
Walnut Hill Care Center of New Brtiain, Connecticut, will pay the U.S. government $222,419 to resolve charges it hired a nurse without checking to see her license had been revoked, the New Britain Herald reported.
The fine is based on what Medicare, Medicaid and other federal programs have paid for the services of someone barred from nursing and therefore ineligible for federal pay. A government website, oig.hhs.gov/fraud/exclusions.asp, lists people the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has excluded from federal health care programs, and skilled nursing facilities are supposed to check that before hiring.