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August 3, 2022

North Country Neurology, P.C. will pay $850,000 for violating the False Claims Act by submitting claims falsely listing a physician as the service provider, when the services were provided instead by an unsupervised non-physician practitioner. Medicare will reimburse for certain services provided by NPPs, but require a physician to be physically present in the office and immediately available to furnish assistance. This was not the case on over 120 occasions, and NCN admitted it should have known it was improper to bill at the higher physician rather than NPP level. Additionally, NCN improperly billed Medicare on approximately 761 occasions for Botox, even though it had already been paid for by another insurer. NCN blamed their insufficient compliance program for the errors. USAO NDNY

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Improper Medical Personnel, Medical Billing Fraud, Medicare, Provider Fraud, Upcoding,

August 3, 2022

Dunn Meadow LLC dba Dunn Meadow Pharmacy, pleaded guilty to illegally distributing prescription fentanyl and paying kickbacks to healthcare providers, in violation of the False Claims Act and the Controlled Substances Act. From 2015 through 2019, Dunn Meadow filled prescriptions not written for a legitimate medical purpose, including those for patients exhibiting suspicious drug-seeking behavior (i.e., requesting prescriptions be sent to suspicious or inappropriate locations including hotels, casinos, and elementary schools). These actions caused a $4.5 million loss to the federal government. Dunn Meadow will pay up to $50 million over the next five years to resolve its civil liability if it generates future revenue. USAO NJ

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Lack of Medical Necessity, Off-Label and Unapproved Use, Pharma Fraud,

July 29, 2022

Old Man’s Home of Philadelphia d/b/a Saunders House, a skilled nursing facility, will pay $819,640 for its violations of the False Claims Act. A whistleblower filed suit under the qui tam provisions of the FCA, alleging Saunders House overbilled federal healthcare programs for therapy services provided; billed for therapy services not provided; billed for unreasonable, unnecessary, and sometimes harmful therapy; and manipulated clinical services to maximize billing. Medicare Part A paid Saunders House based on beneficiaries’ assigned Resource Utilization Group, and Saunders billed at the highest RUG level—Ultra High or RU—despite the lack of reasonableness or necessity for the patients. USAO EDPA

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Medical Billing Fraud, Medicare, Provider Fraud, SNF, Upcoding, Whistleblower Case,

July 27, 2022

ca Glenn Pair and Markuetric Stringfellow will spend 70 and 78 months in prison, respectively, and pay over $5 million each in restitution for defrauding three States’ Medicaid programs of more than $5 million, and for receiving $1.8 million in kickbacks from participating laboratories. The two owned and operated Do-It-4-The Hood Corporation in North Carolina and later expanded to Georgia. They targeted Medicare-eligible children, enrolled them in their programs, and required them to submit urine specimens for drug testing. Drug testing was in turn billed to Medicaid by complicit laboratories, who then paid kickbacks after receiving Medicaid reimbursement. Through their Wrights Care Services LLC franchise in South Carolina, the two filed fraudulent Medicaid claims for mental health counseling, going so far as to host a “note party,” upon learning of a Medicare audit of Wrights Care, to cover up their scheme by creating false billing records to substantiate their fraudulent Medicaid claims. USAO WDNC, USAO SC

Tagged in: Anti-Kickback and Stark, FCA State, Healthcare Fraud, Laboratory and IDTF, Lack of Medical Necessity, Medicaid, Medicare, Provider Fraud,

July 26, 2022

Dr. Don Flanagan, D.D.S. and his companies Dental Center, Inc. and Dental Center, P.C. d/b/a Cloudland Dental, will pay $1.5 million for submitting or causing to be submitted claims for payment by falsely identifying Dr. Flanagan as the credentialed physician rendering services. TennCare requires dentists to be credentialed as part of the approval process for billing, yet, from January 2015 through February 2019, services were rendered by uncredentialed dentists, which is a violation of the Tennessee Medicaid False Claims Act. EDTN USAO

Tagged in: FCA State, Healthcare Fraud, Improper Medical Personnel, Medicaid, Provider Fraud,

July 22, 2022

Metric Lab Services, LLC, Metric Management Services LLC, Spectrum Diagnostic Labs LLC, and two of their owners, Sherman Kennerson and Jeffrey Madison, will pay $5.7 million to resolve allegations of False Claims Act violations. In their genetic testing fraud scheme, Metric and Spectrum paid kickbacks to certain marketers who solicited generic testing samples from Medicare beneficiaries, with false physician attestations that the testing was medically necessary. Kennerson and Madison both pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and are currently awaiting sentencing. DOJ, NJ USAO

Tagged in: Anti-Kickback and Stark, FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Laboratory and IDTF, Lack of Medical Necessity, Medicare,

July 20, 2022

Texas-based clinical laboratory Inform Diagnostics, Inc., formerly known as Miraca Life Sciences, Inc., has agreed to pay $16 million to resolve allegations of violating the False Claims Act.  Inform admitted that it had a policy of conducting additional tests on biopsy specimens without an individualized determination on whether additional tests were medically necessary, then submitting bills for those unauthorized and unnecessary tests to Medicare and other federal healthcare programs.  USAO MA

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Laboratory and IDTF, Lack of Medical Necessity, Medicare, Other Government Health Programs,

June 16, 2022

A Florida man who was convicted of defrauding Medicare of over $20 million and evading taxes has been sentenced to 14 years in prison and ordered to pay $4 million in restitution to the IRS.  As the owner and operator of multiple telemarking and telemedicine companies, Marc Sporn marketed and sold signed prescription orders for medically unnecessary genetic tests, in exchange for illegal kickbacks from pharmacies and laboratories.  USAO SDFL

Tagged in: Criminal Proceedings, Healthcare Fraud, Laboratory and IDTF, Lack of Medical Necessity, Medicare, Tax Fraud,

June 6, 2022

SNAP Diagnostics LLC, along with its founder, Gil Raviv, and vice president, Stephen Burton, will pay a combined $3.925 million to settle allegations of False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute violations. SNAP routinely submitted claims for Medicare and TRICARE patients’ second and third nights of home sleep testing, when patients with private health insurance were routinely billed only for the first night. Additionally, SNAP multiplied copays from senior citizen Medicare beneficiaries, and incentivized physicians to refer their patients for sleep testing services. USAO NDIL

Tagged in: Anti-Kickback and Stark, FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Laboratory and IDTF, Medical Billing Fraud, Medicare, Other Government Health Programs, Provider Fraud,

June 3, 2022

Rodney L. Yentzer will pay $900,000 for violating the False Claims Act. Through Pain Medicine of York, a group of clinics he controlled, Yentzer caused the submission of false claims for payment to Medicare for urine drug tests that were not medically reasonable or necessary and were not used to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of patients. He is excluded from participation in all federal health care programs for 22 years. In March of 2022, Yentzer pleaded guilty to Health Care Fraud, Money Laundering, and Theft of Public Money for defrauding Medicare, Medicaid, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services between 2016 and 2020. USAO MDPA

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Laboratory and IDTF, Lack of Medical Necessity, Medicaid, Medical Billing Fraud, Medicare, Other Government Health Programs, Provider Fraud,

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