Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Insurers Agree To Settlements In Alleged Data Breach, Billing Scheme
Modern Healthcare: UnityPoint Agrees To $2.8 Million Data Breach Settlement
Iowa Health System, which does business as UnityPoint Health, has reached a settlement over two data breaches at the health system, which had collectively compromised data on more than 1 million patients and employees, according to court documents filed last week. The plaintiffs in the case filed the motion for preliminary approval of a settlement to end a proposed class action over the 2017 and 2018 cyberattacks in federal court in Wisconsin. (Cohen, 6/29)
Modern Healthcare: Piedmont Healthcare To Pay $16 Million To Settle False-Claims, Kickback Allegations
Piedmont Healthcare will pay $16 million to settle two False Claims Act allegations involving overbilling and kickbacks. The Atlanta-based health system allegedly billed Medicare and Medicaid for unnecessary care and paid above fair market value to acquire Atlanta Cardiology Group in 2007, incentivizing referrals, according to a 2016 qui tam lawsuit filed by a former Piedmont physician that was unsealed last week. (Kacik, 6/29)
Kaiser Health News: Hospital Executive Charged In $1.4B Rural Hospital Billing Scheme
A Miami entrepreneur who led a rural hospital empire was charged in an indictment unsealed Monday in what federal prosecutors called a $1.4 billion fraudulent lab-billing scheme. In the indictment, prosecutors said Jorge A. Perez, 60, and nine others exploited federal regulations that allow some rural hospitals to charge substantially higher rates for laboratory testing than other providers. (Weber and Feder Ostrov, 6/30)
Crain's Detroit Business: Mich. Health Systems Garner More Than $4.4 Billion In COVID-19 Relief Funding
Michigan's 10 top hospital systems are expected to receive $1.7 billion in COVID-19 relief grant funds from the federal government and $2.7 billion in Medicare advanced reimbursement loans that must be paid back by the end of the year. Several health system executives told Crain's the $4.4 billion will not cover financial losses incurred by the coronavirus pandemic through June as measured by lost revenue from elective procedures and surgeries and increased expenses for supplies, additional personal protective equipment and hazard pay. (Greene, 6/29)
Modern Healthcare: Trinity Health Projects $2 Billion Less Revenue, Will Lay Off More Staff
Trinity Health projects the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will mean $2 billion less in operating revenue in its fiscal 2021, which begins July 1, and it is rolling out another round of layoffs and furloughs to compensate. Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity said Monday it expects to draw $17.3 billion in operating revenue in fiscal 2021, compared with $19.3 billion in fiscal 2019, which ended June 30, 2019. The health system didn't share a projection for fiscal 2020, which ends June 30. The 92-hospital not-for-profit system, which operates in 22 states, is among the country's largest. (Bannow, 6/29)
