Blessing Hospital Reaches Settlement with Department of Justice

The Department of Justice announced today (Tuesday) that it has reached a $2.82 million settlement with Blessing Hospital.

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The settlement resulted from a voluntary disclosure made by Blessing Hospital to the Department of Justice after identifying that certain cardiac procedures performed at Blessing resulted in an overpayment. The procedures at issue were performed by a physician formerly employed by a non-Blessing medical group in Quincy. The physician has not practiced in the Quincy area for the last three years.

Blessing conducted an independent audit after discovering a potential compliance issue. Once Blessing received the audit findings, it was determined an overpayment had been received for cardiac procedures and the hospital voluntarily contacted the Department of Justice to start the process to refund identified overpayments.

The agreement announced today settles potential civil claims that could have been brought by the U.S government or the State of Illinois related to the procedures performed by the physician formerly employed by a non-Blessing medical group.

“Our patients’ health and safety is and has always been our priority,” says Maureen Kahn, president and CEO of Blessing Health System and Blessing Hospital. “We’re proud we did the right thing when we became aware of the issue and we’re happy it has been resolved. Our focus is on the future as we continue to strengthen the important services and programs for our community to provide the highest quality patient care.”