90.7 WMFE

Florida Hospital’s parent company settled allegations Thursday that it over-billed the federal government. The alleged fraud took place from 2010 to 2013.

Adventist Health System agreed to pay $5.4 million to settle the allegations.

Adventist was accused of billing cancer treatments that weren’t directly supervised by an oncologist.

The overbilling happened at 9 hospitals, mostly in Central Florida.

“We will not tolerate providers recklessly cutting corners, particularly when furnishing such critical medical services as radiation oncology,” said U.S. Attorney A. Lee Bentley of Florida in a statement.

The hospital did not admit wrongdoing with the settlement.

In a statement, hospital spokeswoman Samantha Kearns O’Lenick said Adventist Health takes federal oversight very seriously and is pleased to reach an agreement.

“It is important to note we do not believe there is evidence that the care of any patient was impacted by the legal issues in dispute,” O’Lenick said.

WMFE is a partner with Health News Florida, a statewide collaborative reporting on health care.

Health reporting on WMFE is supported in part by AdventHealth.