Earlier this week a former hospital CFO pleaded guilty to submitting false documents so the medical center could receive $785,000 in payments under the meaningful use and electronic health records financial incentive program.
Joe White formerly served as the CFO of now defunct Texas hospitals operated by Tariq Mahmood, MD. As reported by EHRIntelligence.com, White was indicted in February by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Texas.
White oversaw EHR implementation for Shelby Regional Medical Center in Texas and was responsible for attesting to the meaningful use of EHRs to qualify to receive incentive payments under Medicare’s Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program. On Nov. 20, 2012, White knowingly made a false statement to Medicare, according to the Department of Justice. The former CFO stated that the hospital was a meaningful user of EHRs. However, the hospital had not met the meaningful use requirements.
From there, Shelby hospital received $785,655 in January 2013 for its successful demonstration of meaningful use during that full-year reporting period. Those incentives were added to the $1.17 million the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) awarded Shelby in November 2011.
Background on the case
According to the original indictment, White created a 2012 EHR attestation user ID and Social Security number (SSN) of Shelby Regional’s Director of Nursing and Assistant Administrator without that person’s knowledge around early October 2012. The director refused to submit the 2012 attestation because she did not think the hospital had met the meaningful use criteria.
However, White reportedly submitted the 2012 attestation for Medicare EHR incentives without the authority or consent of the nursing director.
“White knowingly and willfully made materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements and representations, and made and used false writings and documents knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements and entries, in a matter within the jurisdiction of CMS, an agency of the United States, by falsely representing to CMS in Shelby Regional’s Medicare EHR attestation that [the director] was the person attesting and that Shelby Regional was a meaningful user of certified EHR technology…”
Healthcare privacy and security issues also come into play under the allegation that White used the nursing director’s name and Social Security number without her knowledge or consent.
While a sentencing date has not yet been set, White faces up to five years in federal prison. The original indictment also said that federal authorities are seeking a fine of $250,000, as well as no more than three years of probation for the false statement count. Moreover, the government will seek an imprisonment of two years and a fine of $250,000 followed one year of probation for the count of aggravated identity theft, which would run consecutively to the first.
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