◆ Texas Heart Hospital of the Southwest LLP in Plano, Texas, which is partly owned by physicians, and its subsidiary, THHBP Management Company LLC (together known as Heart Hospital), agreed to pay $48 million to settle false claims allegations, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said Dec. 18.[1] The settlement “resolves allegations that the Heart Hospital violated the Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute by requiring physician owners to satisfy the Heart Hospital’s yearly 48 patient-contact requirement in order to maintain ownership in the hospital,” DOJ said. The case was set in motion by two whistleblowers who are former Heart Hospital physicians. DOJ declined to intervene in the case. The whistleblowers, Mitchell Magee, M.D., and Todd Dewey, M.D., will receive $13.9 million of the settlement amount. The Heart Hospital didn’t admit liability in the settlement.