Santa Fe, New Mexico-based Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center and parent organization Christus Health in Irving, Texas, agreed to pay $12.24 million plus interest to resolve allegations they violated the False Claims Act.
The settlement stems from a whistle-blower lawsuit filed by a former Los Alamos County, N.M. indigent healthcare administrator. The lawsuit claims Christus Health and its subsidiary made illegal donations to county governments that were used to pay for New Mexico's portion of Medicaid payments to Christus.
Under New Mexico's Sole Community Provider program, supplemental Medicaid funds were provided to rural hospitals. The federal government reimbursed New Mexico for about 75 percent of its payments under the SCP program, while New Mexico's 25 percent "matching" share of payments had to come from state or county funds. This excluded donations from private hospitals. The program ended in 2014.
The allegations stated Christus and St. Vincent made non-bona fide donations between 2001 and 2009 to the government.
In a statement to Becker's Hospital Review, Christus spokesperson Katy Kiser said, "We have determined that continued expenditure of time and resources in defense of these allegations is not in the best interests of the Santa Fe community or the hospital. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, there is no admission of illegal conduct, and the allegations of the lawsuit are expressly denied by Christus Health and the hospital ... We look forward to continuing our focus on the provision of high quality, compassionate healthcare to the people of Santa Fe County and beyond."
Editor's note: This article was updated Sept. 5, 2017 to include a statement from Christus.