FROM USA TODAY...
WASHINGTON - One of the Pentagon's major health care contractors, which is fighting to keep its multibillion-dollar contract, recently paid a $10 million fine to the federal government to settle a Justice Department suit over claims the company failed to pass on savings to the military.
TriWest Healthcare Alliance, a consortium of non-profit groups in the West, is one of three main contractors for Tricare, the Pentagon's health care program. It paid the government in September to settle a case in which four employees claimed the company defrauded the government by keeping savings it generated while working on the contract.
TriWest has held the contract - estimated to be worth about $17 billion over the next five years - since 1996. It is now in the middle of a rebidding process that likely will be settled next month.
The Defense Department asked for the new bids after UnitedHealth Group argued that Tricare chose contractors that promised to negotiate discounts with providers at levels below Medicare. That, they say, is an invitation to focus on low costs rather than quality care. UnitedHealthcare, which is part of UnitedHealth Group, is competing against TriWest in the bidding process.
But since that complaint pushed the government to renegotiate bids, former TriWest employees filed a whistle-blower lawsuit saying TriWest "systematically defrauded" Tricare, and that:
