TeamHealth Holdings, Inc. is one of the nation’s largest providers of outsourced physician staffing solutions for hospitals. The company contracts with hospitals and physician groups in the areas of emergency medicine, hospital medicine, anesthesia and specialty hospitalist services. It also offers combined outsourcing services to single hospitals and hospital systems

TeamHealth has a growing presence in California. In 2014 it announced the acquisition of the operations of Burbank, Calif.-based Primary Critical Care Medical Group (PCCMG). Specializing primarily in hospital and critical care medicine, PCCMG provides clinical services through partnerships with four hospitals and two outpatient primary care clinics in the Southern California market.

IPC Healthcare Inc., was purchased by TeamHealth in November 2015. IPC is headquartered in North Hollywood, on Lankershim Boulevard. IPC manages hospitalist practice groups in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Inland Empire, and nationally. The transaction was valued at approximately $1.6 billion.

TeamHealth’s approximately 10,000 affiliated healthcare professionals provide emergency medicine, hospital medicine, anesthesia, urgent care, and pediatric staffing and management services to approximately 900 civilian and military hospitals, clinics, and physician groups in 46 states.

The Department of Justice just announced that TeamHealth Holdings, as successor in interest to IPC has agreed to resolve allegations that IPC violated the False Claims Act by billing Medicare, Medicaid, the Defense Health Agency and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program for higher and more expensive levels of medical service than were actually performed (a practice known as “up-coding”). Under the settlement agreement, TeamHealth has agreed to pay $60 million, plus interest.

The government contended that IPC knowingly and systematically encouraged false billings by its hospitalists, who are medical professionals whose primary focus is the medical care of hospitalized patients. Specifically, the government alleged that IPC encouraged its hospitalists to bill for a higher level of service than actually provided. IPC’s scheme to improperly maximize billings allegedly included corporate pressure on hospitalists with lower billing levels to “catch up” to their peers.

As part of the settlement, TeamHealth entered into a five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement (CIA) with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) covering the company’s hospital medicine division. This CIA is designed to increase TeamHealth’s accountability and transparency so that the company will avoid or promptly detect future fraud and abuse.

The settlement resolves allegations filed in a lawsuit by Dr. Bijan Oughatiyan, a physician formerly employed by IPC as a hospitalist. The Act also allows the government to intervene and take over the action, as it did in this case. Dr. Oughatiyan will receive approximately $11.4 million from the settlement.