A Houston-area medical center is on the hook for a hefty $2 million payment to settle allegations of fraudulently inflating healthcare costs and double-dipping on COVID-19 test billing. United Memorial Medical Center LLC (UMMC), operated by Doctor's Hospital 1997 L.P., has drawn legal fire for allegedly fleecing government health care programs and is now facing the music.

Details of this legal reckoning were disclosed in a settlement agreement the hospital reached with the United States, where not only does UMMC have to cough up $2 million, but additional payments are contingent on unspecified conditions. Amid these allegations, UMMC's principal, Ravishanker Mallapuram, is footing the bill—with a guarantee on those funds by UMMC itself.

"We depend upon medical providers to be good stewards of a community’s healthcare services and of the federally funded programs that pay for those services," U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani for the Southern District of Texas told the Justice Department. "UMMC made millions by overbilling those health care programs and intentionally double billing for COVID-19 testing."

The allegations unpack a scheme where UMMC sought extra "cost outlier" payments from Medicare and Tricare—supposedly to cover unusually high medical costs—by inflating charges and fudging their reports. Moreover, they allegedly double billed the government for COVID-19 tests, a tab already picked up either by the State of Texas or the City of Houston. This settlement also puts an end to a whistleblower lawsuit brought forth by Ryan Griffin, a former UMMC employee, who is walking away with $300,000 for his troubles.