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Adventist Health To Pay $115M To Settle Whistleblower Suit

WMFE
/
WMFE
Adventist Health System will pay $115 million to settle allegations it improperly paid doctors.

Adventist Health System has settled a whistleblower suit for $115 million dollars. It’s the largest settlement of a False Claims Act dispute without litigation, according to magazine Modern Healthcare.

The central Florida based nonprofit Adventist Health System was accused of awarding bonuses to doctors for referrals in Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

That includes paying for the lease of a surgeon’s Mustang and BMW, and paying a dermatologist more than $700,000 for working three days a week. Those investigations often target Florida hospitals and health care providers.

Adventist Health System has since centralized how it administers doctor pay. Three whistleblowers will get a cut of the settlement.

The federal government has recovered more than $16 billion from health care organizations accused of fraud since 2009. Those investigations often target Florida hospitals and health care providers.

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WMFE is a partner with Health News Florida, which receives support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Health News Florida reporter Abe Aboraya works for WMFE in Orlando. He started writing for newspapers in high school. After graduating from the University of Central Florida in 2007, he spent a year traveling and working as a freelance reporter for the Seattle Times and the Seattle Weekly, and working for local news websites in the San Francisco Bay area. Most recently Abe worked as a reporter for the Orlando Business Journal. He comes from a family of health care workers.