By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org, Special to SouthFloridaReporter.com, Sept. 21, 2015 – Court documents describe the massive healthcare fraud that led Broward Health to pay $69.5 million to settle a whistleblower’s lawsuit last week as an illegal “scheme of mutual enrichment” between the hospital system and its physicians.
Was it a criminal scheme?
Justice Department attorneys who handled the case aren’t talking. “As a general policy, the Justice Department does not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation,” said Nicole A. Navas, a department spokeswoman in Washington.
Still, the settlement agreement between the North Broward Hospital District, Broward Health’s legal name, and the government leaves open the possibility that the district and some of its past and present officers, commissioners, attorneys and physicians are the focus of a behind-the-scenes criminal probe.
