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August 5, 2021

Ascension Michigan and related hospitals, which allegedly billed federal healthcare programs for services performed by a gynecologic oncologist that were not medically necessary or rendered as represented, has agreed to pay $2.8 million to resolve their liability under the False Claims Act.  The settlement resolves claims from a 2017 qui tam suit by whistleblowers Pamela Satchwell, Dawn Kasdorf, and Bethany Silva-Gomez, that Ascension knowingly submitted claims for medically unnecessary hysterectomies and chemotherapy, and unrendered evaluation and management services.  Spurred by patient complaints, Ascension launched an internal investigation, ultimately self-disclosing the misconduct to the government in 2018.  As part of the settlement, Satchwell, Kasdorf, and Silva-Gomez will share in a $532,000 award.  USAO EDMI

July 23, 2021

California-based Interface Rehab has agreed to pay $2 million to settle claims arising from a qui tam suit by its former director of rehab, Keith Pennetti.  According to Pennetti, Interface violated the False Claims Act when it pressured its therapists to increase the amount of therapy provided to Medicare Part A residents at eleven facilities, with no regard to medical necessity, and caused false claims to be submitted to Medicare.  For instigating the action, Pennetti will receive $360,000 of the settlement proceeds.  USAO CDCA

July 20, 2021

Rheumatologist Enrico Arguelles and his practice, Arthritis and Osteoporosis Center of Billings, Montana, agreed to pay $1.27 million and relinquish Medicare claims for $802,000 in settlement of claims that they improperly billed for MRI scans and patient visits, and billed for biologic infusions such as Remicade where the treatment was not medically necessary.  USAO MT

July 16, 2021

Florida Neurological Center, LLC and its owner Dr. Lance Kim have agreed to settle a whistleblower-brought suit and pay $800,000 to resolve allegations of defrauding Medicare.  The qui tam suit by Michael Singbush, Andrea Herrera, and Harvey Kessler Meyer, IV alleged that Dr. Kim prescribed medically unnecessary prescription drugs, which cost Medicare $35,000 each time it was prescribed.  For their role in the successful enforcement action, the whistleblowers will share in a $144,000 award.  USAO MDFL

July 9, 2021

Genetworx Laboratories, a diagnostic laboratory in Virginia, has agreed to pay $1.4 million to resolve allegations of submitting false claims to Medicare in violation of the False Claims Act.  Over the course of a year, Genetworx allegedly billed for genetic tests that were performed on groups of senior citizens in senior homes without valid physician oversight.  USAO NJ

June 28, 2021

Surgical Care Affiliates, LLC and Orlando Center for Outpatient Surgery, LP have agreed to pay $3.4 million to resolve a whistleblower’s allegations that they billed Medicare and TRICARE for medically unnecessary kidney stone procedures.  The centers also engaged in an illegal kickback arrangement whereby urologist Dr. Patrick Hunter performed lithotripsy procedures in exchange for per-procedure payments from the Orlando Center.  For bringing a successful action, whistleblower Scott Thompson will receive a relator’s share of $748,000 from the settlement with SCA and the Orlando Center.  USAO MDFL

July 2, 2021

Select Medical Corporation (SMC) and Encore GC Acquisition LLL have agreed to pay $8.4 million to settle allegations that contract rehabilitation therapy provider Select Medical Rehabilitation Services Inc. (SMRS)—a previous subsidiary of SMC and current subsidiary of Encore—violated the False Claims Act.  According to former SMRS employee Melissa Vail, SMRS’s desire to maximize profits led it to provide medically unnecessary, unreasonable, and unskilled therapy services, and subsequently caused twelve skilled nursing facilities in the New York and New Jersey area to submit false claims to Medicare over a six-year period.  USAO NJ

June 25, 2021

Connecticut Addiction Medicine, LLC (CAM) and its owners, Dr. Jay Benson and Dr. Mahboob Aslam, have agreed to pay over $1 million to resolve their liability under the False Claims Act in connection with overcharges for urine drug tests that they caused to Medicare and Medicaid.  As part of their standard practice, CAM ran presumptive tests in-house but also sent the same sample out to an independent reference laboratory for definitive tests.  CAM then billed federal healthcare programs for the medically unnecessary presumptive tests.  USAO CT

May 28, 2021

Erik Santos of Georgia was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison following his guilty plea on healthcare fraud charges.  Santos conspired with Florida compounding pharmacy Patient Care America and others to recruit Tricare beneficiaries to fill prescriptions for expensive, supposedly tailor-made, compounded medications that consisted of little more than common pain or scar creams, but came with price tags as high as $10,000-$15,000 per month.  The beneficiaries did not need the medications, which had little to no therapeutic value, and Santos secured the prescriptions by paying doctors, who had not actually seen the beneficiaries, to approve pre-printed prescriptions for large amounts of these medications.  Santos’s fraudulent referrals caused an actual loss to the Tricare program of approximately $12 million.  PCA pharmacy paid Santos over $7 million in prescription referral kickbacks.  In addition to the prison sentence, the Court imposed restitution in the amount of $11.8 million and entered a forfeiture judgement of approximately $7.6 million.  USAO SD FL

May 26, 2021

HEAG Pain Management Center, P.A. (HEAG) and its owner, Dr. Kwadwo Gyarteng-Dakwa (Dr. Dakwa), have agreed to pay $500,000 to settle allegations of defrauding Medicare and Medicaid.  According to the government, the defendants knowingly submitted or caused the submission of claims for medically unnecessary diagnostic testing between 2011 and 2016.  AG NC; USAO MDNC
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