Three New Mexico hospitals to be target of federal False Claims Act suit

Community Health Systems of Franklin, Tennessee has announced that the U.S. Department of Justice will sue the company in New Mexico federal court over a billing dispute regarding Medicaid payments to three of the company’s New Mexico hospitals. The government alleges that from 2000 to 2006, the hospitals violated the False Claims Act by receiving $27.5 million in federal Medicaid payments to which the facilities were not entitled. More details were not released.

In 1996, Community Health acquired the three New Mexico hospitals — Mimbres Memorial Hospital in Deming; Alta Vista Regional Hospital in Las Vegas; and Eastern New Mexico Medical Center in Roswell. Community Health Systems Inc. is a for-profit company that operates 119 acute-care hospitals in 29 states.

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