New Jersey's Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton to Pay $6.35 Million in Medicare Fraud Settlement

Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton (N.J.) has agreed to a $6.35 million settlement to resolve allegations that it inflated charges to Medicare patients to obtain higher reimbursements from the federal program.

Medicare provides supplemental outlier payments for cases that involve unusually high costs to providers. Two whistleblower lawsuits against the Hamilton hospital alleged it inflated charges to obtain these supplemental outlier payments for cases that were not overly costly and that should not have been eligible for outlier payments. The federal government intervened in the lawsuits in January 2008.

"The settlement resolves the entire case brought by the government," Skip Cimino, the hospital's president and CEO, said in a written statement. "In the settlement agreement, the hospital expressly denies any wrongdoing or admission of the government's claims."

As part of the civil settlement, the whistleblowers will receive $1.1 million of the settlement amount.

Read the U.S. Justice Department news release on Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton.