Mercy Hospital in Portland, Maine, has agreed to pay $1.51 million to resolve allegations it violated the federal and Maine False Claims Acts, according to the Department of Justice.
The government alleged Mercy Hospital overbilled Medicare and Maine's Medicaid program for urinalysis drug screening tests performed at the former Mercy Recovery Center in Westbrook, Maine, from 2011 through 2013.
According to the DOJ, Mercy separately billed government payers for multiple same-day urinalysis drug screening tests when the tests should have been bundled and billed as one claim for each patient encounter.
In addition to the monetary settlement, Mercy and its parent organization, Brewer-based Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, implemented internal compliance measures in response to the overbilling issues.
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