Parkland hospital kept information from its auditors, feared federal subpoena on Medicare overcharges

Parkland Memorial Hospital once estimated it owed up to $50 million for overcharging Medicare and Medicaid. But it has repaid only $1.4 million amid an ongoing fight with federal investigators, records obtained by The Dallas Morning News show.

The records include an internal Parkland memo outlining plans to withhold information from the hospital's outside auditors, Deloitte & Touche. Auditors were seeking details about how administrators had calculated the hospital's liability under federal fraud statutes.

"The level of documentation they [auditors] want is not at a level that our internal and external counsel is willing to share. Counsel is concerned that any detail support to Deloitte will be subject to an OIG subpoena," the memo said, referring to the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, which oversees federal health care programs.