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Health care provider "Ascension" agrees to pay $2.8 M settlement over improper billing for hysterectomies

PIRON GUILLAME / UNSPLASH

A health care provider with locations across Michigan has agreed to pay 2.8 million dollars to settle claims that a doctor performed unnecessary medical procedures.

Ascension Health agreed to pay the federal government to settle claims that a doctor performed medically improper procedures on women, and then billed Medicare, Medicaid and an insurance program for military personnel.

The doctor’s name is redacted from the settlement agreement with the US Justice Department.

Among other things, the doctor is alleged to have performed unnecessary radical hysterectomies on women instead of simple hysterectomies over a six-year period.

Attempts to reach an Ascension spokesperson for comment were not successful.