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November 22, 2021

Home health provider PruittHealth, Inc. has agreed to pay $4.2 million to resolve allegations that they knowingly submitted false claims for services that were not eligible for reimbursement because, among other things, they did not have the required face-to-face certifications or plans of care, and they did not document the beneficiary’s homebound status or need for the home health services.  Tina Peery, who initiated the government action by filing a qui tam complaint, will receive an award of $700,000.  USAO ND Ga

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Home Health and Hospice, Lack of Medical Necessity, Whistleblower Case, Whistleblower Rewards,

November 22, 2021

South Carolina chiropractor Daniel McCollum has consented to judgment of $9 million to resolve charges that he submitted false claims to federal healthcare programs in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute and Stark Law.  McCollum admitted that his laboratory, Labsource (which was a party to a related action), gave referring providers an opportunity to earn revenue generated from their commercially-insured referrals for urine drug testing as an inducement for those providers to refer all of their federally-insured urine drug testing patients to Labsource.  McCollum also caused medically unnecessary prescriptions for pain creams often without the knowledge or approval of the patients’ healthcare providers.  In addition to the civil settlement, McCollum pleaded guilty to criminal kickback and healthcare fraud charges and will be sentenced at a later date.  DOJ; USAO SC

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

October 22, 2021

Texas doctors Robert Wills and Brannon Frank, who previously operated Austin Pain Associates, will pay $3.9 million to resolve allegations that they billed federal and state healthcare programs for medically unnecessary urine drug tests that were performed at Austin Pain Associates’ in-house lab.  The investigation was initiated after a whistleblower complaint was filed by former Austin Pain Associates employees Jennifer Nuessner and Robert Hoffman; they will receive approximately $618,000 from the federal share of the settlements. DOJ

Tagged in: FCA Federal, FCA State, Healthcare Fraud, Laboratory and IDTF, Lack of Medical Necessity, Medical Billing Fraud, Provider Fraud, Whistleblower Case, Whistleblower Rewards,

October 20, 2021

South Carolina provider Colonial Family Practice, LLC, has agreed to pay $1.25 million to resolve claims that they submitted false claims to Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE for medically unnecessary nuclear stress tests and Cystatin-C tests, the latter of which were routinely submitted as part of a panel run on most patients, despite being payable for only a narrow set of patients.  The settlements resolve two qui tam actions brought by a former clinical manager and by a former physician assistant.  USAO SC

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Lack of Medical Necessity, Medical Billing Fraud, Provider Fraud, Whistleblower Case,

October 20, 2021

MD Spine Solutions LLC, d/b/a MD Labs Inc., and its owners, co-founders Denis Grizelj and Matthew Rutledge, have agreed to pay up to $16 million to settle fraud allegations raised by an unnamed whistleblower.  MD Labs had allegedly billed Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal healthcare programs for presumptive urine drug testing as well as confirmatory urine drug testing run on the same samples, which is frequently baseless or useless.  USAO MA

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Lack of Medical Necessity, Medicaid, Medicare, Other Government Health Programs, Whistleblower Case,

October 14, 2021

Owners and executives of Massachusetts mental health provider South Bay Mental Health Center, Inc. have agreed to pay $25 million to resolve claims that they caused the submission of false claims to the state’s Medicaid program, MassHealth, by billing for services provided by unlicensed, unqualified, and improperly supervised staff members in violation of MassHealth regulations. Defendants  H.I.G. Growth Partners, LLC and H.I.G. Capital, LLC will pay $19.95 million and defendants Peter J. Scanlon and Kevin P. Sheehan, who held executive and board positions at relevant entities, will pay $5.05 million.  The case was initiated by the filing of a whistleblower complaint under the Massachusetts False Claims Act.  SBMHC previously agreed to pay $4 million to resolve related charges.  Mass

Tagged in: Defendants, FCA State, Healthcare Fraud, Improper Medical Personnel, Medicaid, Medical Billing Fraud, Provider Fraud, Whistleblower Case,

October 8, 2021

U.S. Medical Management, LLC (USMM) and VPA, P.C. (VPA) have agreed to pay $8.5 million to resolve claims raised in five separate qui tam lawsuits that USMM and VPA billed Medicare for medically unnecessary laboratory and diagnostic testing services between 2010 and 2015.  Although the government did not join any of the lawsuits, the whistleblower who filed first will receive $1.53 million under the alternate remedy provision of the False Claims Act.  USAO EDMI

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Laboratory and IDTF, Lack of Medical Necessity, Medicare, Multiple Whistleblowers and First-to-File, Provider Fraud, Whistleblower Case, Whistleblower Rewards,

September 15, 2021

A cardiologist in Florida who allegedly billed Medicare and Medicaid for medically unnecessary procedures has agreed to pay $6.75 million to resolve claims under the False Claims Act.  Between 2013 and 2019, Dr. Ashish Pal allegedly made misrepresentations in patient medical records to justify ablations and vein stent procedures that were not reimbursable under program rules.  Additionally, some of the procedures were later found to have been performed primarily by unqualified ultrasound technicians.  As part of the settlement, Pal and Interventional Cardiology & Vascular Consultants, PLC, will enter in a multiyear integrity agreement and comply with training and reporting requirements, as well as a quarterly claims review by an independent organization.  USAO MDFL

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Lack of Medical Necessity, Medicaid, Medicare, Provider Fraud,

September 3, 2021

A number of South Carolina pain management clinics, drug testing laboratories and other entities associated with chiropractor Daniel McCollum have had default judgments entered against them ordering the payment of $140 million.  The defendant entities, Oaktree Medical Centre P.C., FirstChoice Healthcare P.C., Labsource LLC, Pain Management Associates entities, ProLab LLC, and ProCare Counseling Center LLC, were alleged to have provided illegal financial incentives to providers to induce their referrals of urine drug tests in violation of the Stark Law and the Anti-Kickback Statute, and to have submitted false claims to federal healthcare programs for medically unnecessary urine drug testing, steroid injections, opioid prescriptions, and lidocaine ointment prescriptions.  The settlement resolves claims against the entities brought in three separate qui tam actions Donna Rauch, Muriel Calhoun, Brandy Knight, Karen Mathewson and Tracy Hawkins, former employees of pain management clinics owned or operated by McCollum. The government continues to pursue claims against McCollum.  DOJ; USAO SC; November, 2021 judgment against McCollum

Tagged in: Anti-Kickback and Stark, FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Lack of Medical Necessity, Multiple Whistleblowers and First-to-File, Provider Fraud, Whistleblower Case,

August 30, 2021

Northern California healthcare provider Sutter Health and its affiliated entities will pay $90 million to resolve a False Claims Act case initially filed by whistleblower Kathy Ormsby alleging that defendants submitted unsupported diagnosis codes for patients enrolled in Medicare Advantage.  Sutter contracts with Medicare Advantage Organizations to provide care to Medicare Advantage beneficiaries enrolled in their plans, and allegedly caused those MAOs to submit to Medicare inaccurate and invalid diagnosis codes that inflated the risk scores of those beneficiaries and were not supported by the medical records, thereby resulting in overpayments by CMS.  Sutter also allegedly failed to take sufficient corrective action when it became aware of the submission of these unsupported diagnosis codes.  Sutter also entered into a five-year corporate integrity agreement.  Sutter previously entered into a partial settlement of $30 million, which will be credited against the $90 million total settlement.  DOJ; USAO ND Cal

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Managed Care, Provider Fraud, Risk Adjustment Fraud, Upcoding, Whistleblower Case,

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