ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- The largest hospital in the North Carolina mountains has agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle allegations that it performed medical procedures on a costly inpatient basis when they could have been done cheaper.
The Asheville Citizen-Times reports ( http://avlne.ws/zLTjdX) that Mission Hospital says there was no intention to defraud Medicare. The hospital says no procedures were done unnecessarily.
The U.S. Justice Department says the allegations involve a type of back surgery that can be performed on a less expensive outpatient basis.
Mission CEO Ronald Paulus says hospital doctors concluded that inpatient procedures were the best approach, but that the federal government said there wasn't enough documentation to back up those decisions.
Mission was one of 14 hospitals nationwide that agreed to pay roughly $12 million because of the procedures.
