Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, announced a settlement agreement with New York-Presbyterian/Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. The settlement agreement requires the hospital to pay $17.3 million to resolve allegations that it paid unlawful kickbacks to physicians at the hospital’s chemotherapy infusion center. The payments were made pursuant to a contractual arrangement that linked the compensation physicians received to the number of referrals the physicians made for services at the Center. The agreement also resolves claims that physicians at the infusion center failed to adequately supervise the chemotherapy services. The settlement resolves claims under the federal and New York State False Claims Acts. Of the total settlement amount, $16.410 million is to be paid to the federal government, and $890,000 is to be paid to New York State. The Hospital voluntarily self-disclosed the issues to the United States.
