A former nurse has filed a federal lawsuit against Lawrence Memorial Hospital. As Jim McLean of the KHI News Service reports, the lawsuit alleges the hospital falsified patient records so as to increase the Medicare payments it received from the federal government.
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The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the federal government by Megen Duffy, a former emergency room nurse at Lawrence Memorial. It says that the records of possible heart attack patients were manipulated to make it appear they were connected to E-K-G monitors the moment they arrived at the ER. Doing that, the lawsuit says, qualified the hospital for higher Medicare quality-of-care incentive payments. L-M-H spokesperson Janice Early says hospital officials haven’t yet seen the lawsuit.
“But I can unequivocally state that the hospital has no such policy to falsify any kind of documentation to maximize reimbursement.”
Robert Collins is one of Duffy’s two lawyers.
“We do know we’ve got some strong witnesses and some strong evidence to move forward with.”
Duffy worked at LMH from 2009 until she was fired in 2013 for allegedly threatening another employee. The lawsuit says the hospital “fabricated” the reason for Duffy’s firing. I’m Jim McLean.
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