Nashville-based HCA (The Healthcare Co.), which agreed in December to pay $745 million to settle civil home health fraud lawsuits brought by the government, has now filed a counterclaim to recover from the government unspecified amounts that have remained open and unresolved since 1997. The company is seeking an order to compel the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) to reconcile more than 1,000 HCA Medicare cost reports dating to 1994.

Normally, when a company files a Medicare cost report, the government and the company resolve any conflicts over the amounts owed, and payment must be made within 30 days. But the Justice Department interrupted that process for HCA when the FBI made a series of raids in 1997, confiscating records for use in the whistleblower lawsuits alleging massive, systematic cost-reporting fraud.

HCA now claims the failure to process those cost reports has cost the company money it should have received years ago. According to HCA, the government has "unjustly enriched itself" by suspending the cost reporting reconciliation process. HCA is asking that all outstanding cost reports be settled and paid with interest, costs, expenses, and legal fees. This could total tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars. The Justice department is currently reviewing the counterclaim.