False Attestation to Meaningful Use by Texas Hospital

While the meaningful use incentive program is intended to encourage healthcare providers to adopt electronic health record systems and to ensure secure data sharing practices, it looks like some providers may have found loopholes to obtaining incentives without actually fulfilling requirements. Shelby Regional Medical Centre in Texas has come under the scanner for making false claims and obtaining nearly $1 million in federal electronic health record (EHR) incentives. The former CFO of the entity has been charged with fraud for making false statements to the centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services over meeting the requirements of meaningful use of EHR.

As per the indictment which was made in November last year, Joe White the former CFO of Shelby Regional had falsely attested to CMS that the entity met meaningful use requirements for the fiscal year 2012, thereby receiving payments of $785,655. However, according to officials, the entity had only used paper records throughout the fiscal year and only made minimal use of EHR, and in order to make it appear that the hospital was using MU-certified technology, had directed its software vendor and hospital staff to manually input data from paper records into EHR software, months after patients were discharged or at the end of the fiscal year.

Moreover, according to officials, White falsely attested to meaningful use, using the name and information of another person without that individual’s consent or authorization. A noteworthy fact is that the hospital was shut down in 2013 following the investigation of its MD Tariq Mahmood for healthcare fraud. Six hospitals operated by Mahmood in Texas received $16.8 million in meaningful use incentives during the fiscal years 2011 and 2012.

As on date, CMS has paid eligible providers and hospitals more than $19.2 billion for attesting to meaningful use requirements. With more emphasis on the adoption of electronic health systems and with more and more federal dollars made available to providers to adopt these systems, the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General is expecting to see more cases such as this one.

Joe White may face up to five years in federal prison if convicted for making false statements and up to two years for aggravated identity theft. Any type of healthcare fraud is bound to invite stringent legal action. But the truth is that this Texas hospital could have avoided this incident altogether if it had put in place, a comprehensive security solution like Aegify Security Posture Management or Aegify SecureGRC, which could have helped achieve meaningful use status with ease, and also ensured that there is no breach of security protocol.