Nelson Hardiman Successfully Challenges Million Dollar Claim By State of California Against Hospital

Nelson Hardiman successfully defended a hospital in a million dollar dispute with the State of California over an incentive it had earned for being an early adopter of electronic health records (EHR). After a routine audit, the State alleged that our client had counted patients wrongly and should only have received $3.27 million of the $4.21 million it had been paid. The discrepancy turned on complex definitions about what constituted a patient day. Specifically, the State alleged that psychiatric bed days were not eligible to be counted in the total bed days for EHR purposes. Nelson Hardiman argued that the billing and cost report reporting of the psychiatric bed days for our client were countable under the State’s program. The administrative law judge agreed with our position and cut the refund request down to approximately $192,000.