Floating Hospital Settles With Feds for $400K

MANHATTAN (CN) - The Floating Hospital, a nonprofit, will pay $400,000 to settle allegations of health care fraud. Federal prosecutors claimed the organization submitted false claims to Medicaid for physical, occupational and speech therapy.

Prosecutors say that between 1997 and 2004, the Floating Hospital performed therapy services at its part-time clinics - of which there are as many as 100 - but the claims are not eligible for Medicaid reimbursement because they were not done at the organization's primary site in Queens.

In September 2001, the Floating Hospital left its original site - anchored in the East River near Wall Street - and today operates a main clinic and administrative offices in Long Island City, N.Y.

Prosecutors say the federal government paid millions of dollars to the hospital under Medicaid's "highest rate," which was determined in 1993 to cover the high overhead of maintaining the ship and low patient volume of up to 5,000 patients a year.

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