Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, September 20, 2010Southern

California Medical Center to Pay U.S. $2.2 Million to Resolve Fraud Allegations

WASHINGTON – The El Centro Regional Medical Center in Imperial County, Calif., has agreed to pay the United States $2.2 million, plus interest, to settle allegations that it defrauded Medicare, the Justice Department announced today.

The government alleges that the 165-bed acute care hospital fraudulently inflated its charges to Medicare patients to obtain larger reimbursements from the federal health care program. The settlement covers claims submitted by the hospital for short inpatient admissions, usually of one day or less, when the services should have been billed on an outpatient “observationâ€