DOJ Puts Academic Medical Centers in Spotlight

On November 27, DOJ announced that Baylor University Medical Center has agreed to pay nearly $1 million to settle whistleblower claims brought under the False Claims Act, alleging that Baylor double-billed Medicare for certain procedures and billed for more expensive services when different, less expensive services should have been billed. The settlement, which DOJ hailed as an example of increased cooperation between DOJ and HHS under the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) initiative, follows a string of recent cases in which DOJ has targeted higher ed institutions under the FCA.