KTIV NewsChannel 4 Sioux City IA: News, Weather and SportsMercy Medical Center pays $400,000 to settle claim

Mercy Medical Center pays $400,000 to settle claim

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KTIV) -- A Sioux City hospital has agreed to settle allegations that for four years it overcharged patients in order to get extra reimbursement from several federal health care programs.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says Mercy Medical Center has agreed to pay $400,000 to settle the claim that it inflated care charges for heart patients between March 1999 and August 2003.

Mercy denied any wrongdoing. Mercy CEO Bob Peebles says "the government's investigation never revealed any evidence that Mercy submitted false statements... nor sought reimbursement for non-allowable costs involving Medicare and Medicaid."

The U.S. Attorney's Office says Mercy inflated charges for Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare, and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.

The settlement also covered claims that Mercy submitted false statements to Medicare and Medicaid concerning its Oakland Memorial Hospital in Oakland, Neb., from 2003 to 2006.