Forum Health to reimburse feds $2.9M for Medicare overbilling

Forum Health will reimburse the U.S. government about $2.9 million as a result of a coding mix-up that led to the Youngstown health system overbilling some Medicare patients.

Forum, which recently agreed to be sold for $120 million to a Tennessee-based health system, voluntarily disclosed the overbilling problem to the government, a U.S. attorney told the Youngstown Vindicator. The attorney described the settlement with Forum as a “significant victory for taxpayers.”

About $2.1 million of the overbilling happened at Youngstown’s Northside Medical Center, with the remaining $800,000 coming from Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren.

The overbilling occurred from 2003 to 2009.

Forum’s sale to Community Health Systems has been approved in U.S. bankruptcy court and is in the process of being finalized, the Vindicator reported. Forum filed for bankruptcy protection last year.

The proposed sale has generated a bit of controversy, drawing objection from the Ohio Nurses Association. The nurses’ union objected to the sale because it violates work agreements between the union and the health system, the Vindicator reported.

A year ago, Community Health Systems completed its buy of Affinity Medical Center in Massillon, Ohio. Incorporated in 1996, Community Health buys hospitals in growing but small communities where hospitals tend to have little competition and less managed-care business.