HHS Doled Out $50 Billion to Firms Accused of Medicare Fraud (2)

Paying kickbacks to doctors for referrals. Surgically implanting unneeded heart monitors. Aggravating troubled teenagers during psychiatric sessions to worsen their mental health.

Health-care providers accused of bilking taxpayers by inflating Medicare or Medicaid expenses have paid billions of dollars in settlements with the federal government over the past decade for a variety of transgressions, some of which risked patients’ lives. Now the money is flowing the other way.

Companies that settled cases involving overbilling or fraud -- among them Tenet Healthcare Corp., Universal Health Services Inc. and Beaumont Health -- received more than $36 billion in interest-free loans from ...