Memorial Health to pay over $1M after federal probe of patient referral practices

U.S. Attorney Bill Killian announced Thursday that his office has reached a settlement with Memorial Health Care System, Inc. and Memorial Hixson Hospital (formerly known as Memorial North Park Hospital) in which Memorial agrees to pay $1,278,579 to settle alleged violations of the federal False Claims Act and other federal laws and regulations. The settlement agreement alleges that, beginning as early as January 2003, Memorial entered into a series of financial arrangements with certain physicians and physician groups through which it provided financial benefits intended to induce physicians to refer patients to Memorial facilities.