John Holland, a former Tenet Healthcare Corp (THC) senior vice president, has been charged in Miami, Florida for allegedly paying millions in kickbacks to a clinic in exchange for patient referrals in a scheme to defraud Medicaid of millions of dollars.

Holland, 59, also purportedly misled federal authorities about THC’s amends for illegal billing practices over the past decade. He was indicted last week on mail, kickback and healthcare fraud charges and pleaded not guilty to all the charges on Wednesday.

According to indictment, Holland reportedly paid Clinica de la Mama $12 million in kickbacks and in exchange, the clinic referred pregnant women to THC’s hospitals for neonatal services that were charged to Medicaid.

Clinica de la Mama predominantly provided care to undocumented immigrants before referring them to the THC’s hospitals in South Carolina and Georgia. While the undocumented women were not eligible for Medicaid benefits, they still qualified for services like emergency delivery at the expense of American taxpayers.

Holland allegedly paid the kickbacks by falsifying THC’s records and circumventing the corporation’s internal accounting controls. THC is the country’s second-largest hospital chain with a dozen hospitals in Florida alone. The corporation has previously paid a $513 million settlement to resolve civil claims with the Justice Department.

Holland is being charged in Miami because the hospital chain reportedly bilked at least $400 million from Medicaid through a billing center in Boca Raton that he controlled.

Source: 2.1.17 Holland Medicare Fraud.pdf | Image Source: Businesswire.com