Investigators pursue N.Y. leads on hospital corruption; Crack down in Fla. fraud probe

A New York hospital system has become entwined in a corruption scandal that sent a state lawmaker to prison for six years, The Wall Street Journal reports. "Former trustees of one of the hospitals operated by MediSys Health Network, speaking for the first time, say MediSys executives kept board members in the dark about business dealings between company management and Anthony Seminerio, the former lawmaker who pleaded guilty to a federal corruption charge."

Prosecutors said MediSys paid Seminerio $400,000 "to lobby state officials to secure loans and state funding for the network's hospitals and help it try to acquire two hospitals in Queens." A lawsuit by a former MediSys general counsel and interviews with trustees show how the earlier suit and press reports prompted ongoing "internal discussions" about the company's involvement in the scandal. The company's executives deny keeping the board in the dark. Federal prosecutors and New York Medicaid's inspector general are said to be investigating the hospital system, but spokesmen for both offices would not confirm the investigations (Gershman, 5/17).

Separately, South Florida Business Journal reports, federal investigators in that state arrested and charged a Miami woman who they say "submitted about $23 million in false Medicare claims for HIV injection and infusion services." She "hired a physician who ordered unnecessary tests, signed false medical analyses and diagnosis forms, and authorized treatments to make it appear that services were being provided to patients who were Medicare beneficiaries" (5/14).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.