An Atlanta attorney representing Irwin County Hospital says an article published recently on DouglasNow.com regarding a $520,000 settlement the hospital will pay out to the government to resolve allegations of false claims submitted to Medicare and Medicaid contained misleading information.
Douglas Now received the following e-mail from Attorney Scott R. Grubman Wednesday afternoon:
To Whom It May Concern,
I represent Irwin County Hospital. The article you published on May 1, 2015, was based upon a press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office that was misleading and, therefore, contains misleading information.
For a clarification, please see the attached press release from Irwin County Hospital. We ask that you print a correction/retraction within 7 days of this notice in a conspicuous manner.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Scott R. Grubman
CHILIVIS, COCHRAN, LARKINS & BEVER LLP
3127 Maple Drive, NE | Atlanta, Georgia 30305
T: 404.262.6505 | F: 404.261.2842 | E: sgrubman@cclblaw.com
As Mr. Grubman states in his e-mail, the information contained in the original article was from a press release issued by the United States Attorney’s Office. As a matter of fact, with the exception of the first sentence, the entire article published on Douglas Now was a complete reprint of that release.
Here is the statement from Grubman on behalf of Irwin County Hospital:
In January 2015, Irwin County Hospital (hereinafter “ICH”) agreed to a civil settlement with the government pursuant to a False Claims Act case filed in federal court alleging various regulatory violations.
As the U.S. Department of Justice stated in its press release, ICH fully cooperated in the investigation, and agreed to resolve the allegations by way of a civil settlement, with neither an admission nor determination of liability.
Unfortunately, several news stories contained inaccurate information regarding certain individual physicians. To clarify, no physician paid any amount of money as part of the settlement, and each of the physicians were released from any and all liability.
Inquiries regarding the case should be directed to ICH’s legal counsel Scott Grubman at (404) 262-6505.