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Monday June 28, 7:45 pm Eastern Time

Columbia/HCA Florida trial near conclusion

TAMPA, Fla., June 28 (Reuters) - Four Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp (NYSE:COL - news) executives played ``audit roulette'' as part of a scheme to defraud the Medicare program, a U.S. prosecutor said Monday.

Jay Jarrell, Michael Neeb, Robert Whiteside and Carl Dick are accused by the U.S. Justice Department of filing false cost reports for Fawcett Memorial Hospital in Port Charlotte, Florida over several years to cover up an accounting error that cost the government $3 million.

``This is a simple case,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Bob Mosakowski said in closing arguments in the two month trial. ``The defendants exploited a weakness in the Medicare system. They found a mistake and conspired to cover it up. They are basically playing audit roulette.''

But attorneys for the defendants, who are on administrative leave from the company, said the government had not proven that the men did anything wrong.

``I submit that the government has not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that there was even an error in the cost reports,'' Jarrell's attorney Peter George said.

George said Jarrell, who is Columbia/HCA's chief executive for its Southwest Florida division, believed in good faith that the cost reports were correct. ``These rules are not black and white,'' George said.

He said several accounting experts supported the defendants' position.

David Geneson, Neeb's attorney, said Neeb was only one of several executives who signed the disputed cost reports, which were prepared by others.

``This wasn't his issue. There is no rational basis to indict Mr. Neeb as opposed to any of these people,'' he said.

The alleged accounting error was brought to the government's attention by David Schilling, who was Columbia's reimbursement manager from 1993 to 1995. Schilling testified for the government in the trial.

But the defense attorneys attacked his credibility, saying he stood to make millions of dollars from a civil suit he filed against the company.

``He (Schilling) is hoping to hit the jackpot,'' George said.

The jury of eight men and four women is expected to begin its deliberations on Tuesday after closing arguments conclude.

Jarrell, Neeb and Whiteside each face seven counts of fraud while Dick is charged with one count of conspiracy. Each count has a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

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