December 10, 2004

In Brief

OVERBILLING SETTLEMENT: A group of doctors at Loma Linda University Medical Center, in California, has agreed to pay $2.2-million to settle accusations raised in a Medicare audit that they overbilled the federal agency. According to the audit, the doctors allegedly charged Medicare for supervising medical interns in operating rooms even when the physicians were not present. Doctors also purportedly engaged in a practice known as "upcoding," in which a hospital submits bills for