Adventist Health System to pay $118 million to settle fraud claims

Florida-based healthcare system Adventist Health System has agreed to pay $118.7 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit that accused it of paying kickbacks to doctors in exchange for referrals, attorneys for the plaintiffs announced on Monday. The agreement comes in a lawsuit filed by three former employees of Adventist's Park Ridge Health hospital in Hendersonville, North Carolina, in 2012. It also resolves claims in a separate 2013 lawsuit containing similar accusations. The bulk of the settlement, $115 million, will go to the federal government, with $3.4 million going to the state of Florida and the rest divided among North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, according Peter Chatfield, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.