Health and Human Services Department

Investigators at the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) said a single hospital in Indiana improperly billed the U.S. government by $5.8 million for Medicaid, specifically inpatient psychiatric services.

The HHS Office of Inspector General wants the state to refund the money given to Logansport State Hospital, because that facility did not comply with federal "minimum standards that provide a basis for improving quality of care and protecting the health and safety of Medicaid beneficiaries," such as staffing levels and treatment plans, the watchdog said.

Two medical centers will pay the government $4.4 million after they unnecessarily performed surgery on patients in order to bill Medicare for the services, according to a press release from the Justice Department.

EMH Regional Medical Medical Center and the North Ohio Heart Center, Inc. performed unnecessary angioplasty and stent placement procedures on patients, then billed the government according to officials.

The Louisiana State Medicaid Fraud Control Unit was kept busy between fiscal years 2009 and 2011.

A Health and Human Services Department Office of Inspector General review of the fraud control group found they had recovered $95 million, obtained 192 convictions and 86 civil judgments or settlements and received 1,043 referrals for other cases.

The IG report also said that the unit did not properly report its income in fiscal year 2010 and 2011. However it was a paperwork problem, and the unit had no problem with control of its finances, investigators said.

The owner and operator of several Florida halfway houses was sentenced to four years, three months in prison for part of a scheme to defraud the government of $205 million in Medicare payments, according to the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services, the latest conviction from an increased crackdown by the government's Medicare Fraud Strike Force.