Somerset Medical Cnter in Somerville, NJ under investigation!

It finally happened, the SMC (local hospital in Somerville, NJ) is under investigation by the Fed's for billing fraud. They have been accused of over billing and double billing their patients who attended the Sleep diagnostics facility in Hillsborough, NJ but this is the tip of the iceberg I believe. Being one of the parties that brought to attention the abusive practices of this facility to both patients and their families, I am very happy to see this take flight. I have no desire to see this facility closed or everyone else improperly being punished who has been doing a great job at the facility, just hold accountable those who violated the public trust and federal and state laws of acceptable behavior. The next stage I believe in this investigation is to broaden the it to all suspicious actions and policies enforced by the hospital administrators. It wasn't too long ago that SMC was in the news with the deadly nurse staff that help put to death terminally ill patients. It's coverage was brief and quickly swept under the rug in my opinion. This facility boasted last year roughly $9 million income with about $8 million dedicated to costs (profit of about $1 million or so) and I found it hard to believe or swallow considering the amount of traffic this hospital has had in the past and the many services that bill patients outside the internal hospital's accounting system (radiologists, physicians groups, etc..). Another interesting note is their claims that the majority of their income was obtained from patients with private golden insurance coverage and not public assisted coverage such as medicare and medicaid or charity care. When the facility in the Plainsfield area closed, the influx of that areas patients grew but yet I would be very curious to see just how many were attended properly at this particular facility and what their income to loss ratio was during this phase. Many hospital's have claimed they are loosing their shirts in providing healthcare services to the poor but has anyone really taken a good look as to the real facts hospital by hospital? I don't believe they have, and both the public and out government agencies (sate & Federal) need to look at the reality of these facts. More information needs to be made public as well like the amount of patients per racial group get treated or hospitalized with conditions, with the life expectancy data and also the income provided by the State and Federal programs. Like I said this is just getting started and I hope the investigation provides answers, punishments and accountability to this areas most important public health service. Here are a few links to some websites that are providing information about what I just wrote about:

Administrative Policy #: 16001

Feds investigating Somerset Medical Center billing practices

Federal authorities investigate billing practices at Somerset Medical Center