Hospital chain owner's trial expected to include billing audit

A Dallas businessman's hospitals improperly billed Medicare 80 percent of the time and kept doing so even after government auditors repeatedly warned administrators of the problem, according to federal court records. The stark pattern, reflecting "improper diagnostic codes," was disclosed last week in government court filings leading up to Dr. Tariq Mahmood's trial on fraud conspiracy charges starting Monday in a Tyler federal court. "When this evidence is coupled with witness testimony that the defendant was directing individuals to submit fraudulently changed codes, it proves the existence of the defendant's scheme to defraud Medicare," according to a motion filed by the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District of Texas.