Two Washington hospitals announced that they are ready to make settlement for allegations that they submitted false claims to the federal Medicare program for a type of procedure, called Kyphoplasty Procedures.

As per the US Department of Justice, a group of 32 hospitals will pay a total of $28 million to settle the allegations. All these hospitals frequently billed Medicare for inpatient stays after a procedure known as kyphoplasty, the Justice Department said.

Kyphoplasty is a treatment for certain spinal fractures caused by osteoporosis. The procedure can be performed in several cases on an outpatient basis, the Department said.

As per the reports from the News Tribune, MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital agreed to pay $938,000 and Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane will pay $906,000.

According to the Justice Department, the settlements announced Friday are the latest to resolve allegations of hospital mischarges for kyphoplasty procedures. The department said that lawsuit alleged that the hospitals increased their Medicare billings by charging for the procedures on an inpatient basis, rather than on an outpatient basis.

Benjamin C. Mizer, principal deputy assistant attorney general, said, “Charging the government for higher cost inpatient services that patients do not need wastes the country’s vital health care dollars”.

MultiCare spokeswoman Marce Edwards told that MultiCare retained a third party to review its billing practices for this procedure and no evidence of improper or fraudulent billing was found.

She further mentioned that MultiCare has admitted no liability or wrongdoing in this matter. On the other hand, the hospital supervisor at Sacred Heart Medical Center on Saturday declined to comment to The Associated Press.