A settlement has been reached in a whistleblower class action lawsuit brought against Mercy Health Springfield Communities, formerly known as St. John’s Health System Inc., and Mercy Clinic Springfield Communities, formerly known as St. John’s Clinic. They are accused of engaging in improper financial relationships with referring physicians.
The whsitleblower will receive $825,000 from the recovery.
Originally filed in 2013, the lawsuit allges that the defendants submitted false claims to the Medicare program for services rendered to patients referred by physicians who received bonuses based on a formula that improperly took into account the value of the physicians’ referrals of patients to the clinic. Federal law restricts the financial relationships that hospitals and clinics may have with doctors who refer patients to them.
