Eagleville Hospital Pays $2.85 Million In Detox Treatments Case

EAGLEVILLE, PA — Eagleville Hospital will pay $2.85 million to the federal government to settle a civil claim that they improperly billed a patient for a higher level detoxification treatment, the US Attorney's Office announced.

One of the patients, described by authorities as a "whistleblower" in the case, will receive $500,000 of the settlement.

Eagleville, which provides substance use disorder treatment, allegedly placed certain groups of patients in a higher level detox treatment, when there was no medical neccessity to do so. The practice went on from Jan. 2011 through Dec. 2018, authorities said.

This, in turn, resulted in false claims being filed with medicare, Medicaid, and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.

Those patients should have been placed in a lower level, "residential" treatment, which has a lower reimbursement rate.

Eagleville has agreed to enter into a five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement with the US Department of Health and Human Services. The agreement requires ongoing risk assessment and internal review to address various compliance risks. Staff will be trained, audited, and monitored in an effort to address the improper billing.

The False Claims Act allowed the whistleblower to bring the case forward on behalf of the federal government, and to share in the recovered sum.