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Home Health and Hospice

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March 25, 2022

Two New York-based home health agencies, All American Homecare Agency and Crown of Life Care NY LLC, have agreed to pay a total of $5.4 million to settle allegations of violating federal and state False Claims Acts.  The agencies had allegedly paid their home health aides below minimum wage, despite claiming otherwise and receiving millions for said wages from Medicaid.  In addition to the monetary penalties, the agencies will also pay back wages owed to current and former aides.  NY AG; USAO EDNY

February 18, 2022

Muhammad Ateeq, of Rawalpindi, Pakistan, was sentenced to 12 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $50 million in restitution for forfeiture for submitting fraudulent claims to Medicare for home health services. Ateeq acquired and managed home health agencies in the United States, using false identities. He then used these home health agencies to submit fraudulent Medicare claims totaling over $40 million for services not rendered. The ill-gotten gains were laundered through U.S. bank accounts designated by overseas customers of overseas money transmitting businesses. Cash payments were then transmitted to accounts in Pakistan which Ateeq controlled. Fraud proceeds were also used to purchase luxury items which were delivered to Ateeq’s Dubai associates. DOJ

Catch of the Week: Texas Hospice CEO Gets 13 Year Sentence in $60 Million Fraud Scheme

Posted  01/28/22
doctor touching hospice patient
A federal judge in Texas sentenced Bradley Harris, former head of Novus Health Services, Inc. hospice company in Frisco, to more than thirteen years in prison and ordered him to pay $27.6 million in restitution. The sentence, announced in a DOJ press release, follows his guilty plea on charges of conspiracy and fraud on Medicare and Medicaid. Harris is the latest to be sentenced in a fraud scheme spanning...

Top Ten Financial and Healthcare Fraud Prison Sentences of 2021

Posted  01/28/22
handcuff and money
Individuals involved in financial and healthcare fraud schemes face not just civil liability, but also criminal penalties – including prison time. In 2021, the Department of Justice obtained substantial prison sentences in a myriad of cases involving healthcare and financial frauds, many of which involved convictions of the type of fraudulent schemes that whistleblowers report. Whistleblowers play an essential role...

December 1, 2021

A collection of hospices known as Crossroads Hospice has agreed to pay $5.5 million to settle allegations raised in two qui tam suits by former employees Leanne Malone, Jackie Burns, and Angela Heck, and a home health physician in Tennessee, Dr. David Weber.  In their lawsuits, the whistleblowers alleged that between 2012 and 2014, Crossroads billed Medicare for hospice care for patients who were not terminally ill, including patients with Alzheimer’s or dementia.  Malone, Burns, and Heck will divide a million-dollar relator’s share.  USAO WDTN

November 23, 2021

A number of related entities operating in Ohio and Tennessee as Crossroads Hospice have agreed to pay $5.5 million to resolve allegations that they submitted false claims for hospice services that were not covered by Medicare.  Specifically, the government alleged that over a period of three years, Crossroads submitted claims for dementia or Alzheimer’s patients who were not terminally ill for at least a portion of the more than three years that the patients received care.  Two qui tam actions were filed regarding the false claims; the three individuals who jointly filed the first action, Leanne Malone, Jackie Burns and Angela Heck, were previously employees of Crossroads, and will receive approximately $1.045 millionDOJ

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 $700,000USAO ND Ga

November 1, 2021

Geisinger Community Health Services, based in Pennsylvania, has agreed to pay over $18.5 million to resolve its liability following a self-disclosure of violations of the False Claims Act.  The violations occurred between 2012 and 2017 and involved physician certifications of terminal illness, patient elections of hospice care, and physician face-to-face encounters with home health patients.  USAO MDPA

Catch of the Week: Bayada Home Health Care Settles Kickback Allegations for $17 Million in Case Demonstrating that Kickbacks Come in Many Forms

Posted  09/17/21
business person stamping a paper
Last week, Bayada Home Health Care, Inc., a national home health company with more than $1.5 billion in reported revenues and offices in twenty-two states, agreed to pay the United States $17 million to settle allegations that it violated the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS).  The AKS prohibits paying illegal remuneration in any form to induce business or referrals paid for with federal health care dollars, and...

September 8, 2021

Bayada Home Health Care, Inc. and related entities agreed to pay $17 million to resolve allegations of paying unlawful kickbacks that were initiated by a whistleblower action under the False Claims Act.  The government alleged that Bayada purchased two home health care agencies from a company that owned retirement communities in order to induce referrals from the seller to Bayada.  The whistleblower, David Freedman, was the director of strategic growth for Bayada; he will receive more than $3 million as a whistleblower reward.  DOJ; USAO NJ
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