Ashland, Ore.-based Asante Health System and one of its physicians have agreed to pay $430,000 to settle allegations that they knowingly submitted false claims for cardiothoracic surgeries to federal health programs.
Between Jan. 1, 2015, and Jan. 31, 2021, the health system and cardiothoracic surgeon Charles Carmeci, MD, allegedly knowingly submitted claims for surgeries that did not meet reimbursement criteria to Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare, according to a Jan. 16 news release from the Justice Department.
The procedures included decortications, PleurX catheter placements, pericardiectomies, mediastinal mass resections, patent foramen ovale, atrial septal defect closures and Bentall procedures.