Medicaid

July 20, 2015

Following a jury trial, Humphrey Udeh was convicted of defrauding New York’s Medicaid program of over $1 million. Udeh billed the state for over three thousand units of a highly-specialized and expensive liquid pediatric nutritional formula, when he actually dispensed over-the-counter nutritional supplement formulas. In order to perpetuate the scam, Udeh utilized generic prescriptions of pediatric formula and false letters of medical necessity, obtained by employees of his company, Advanced Medical Supply, from unsuspecting physician and medical facilities. He then used the generic prescriptions and false letters to support his fraudulent claims. Udeh was sentenced to serve 7 to 21 years in state prison and pay a $1.7 million fine. NY

July 15, 2015

A Hawaii administrative panel determined that Liberty Dialysis was overpaid over $7 million for treatments given to Medicaid patients between 2006 and 2010. While the Attorney General stated that the original overpayments were the result of a state computer error, Hawaii also announced that it was pursuing litigation against Liberty, which is alleged to have known it was being overpaid and continued to submit claims in a way designed to continue those overpayments. HI

July 6, 2015

New York announced a $400,000 settlement with a transportation company that was unable to provide documentation for services it had billed to Medicaid. “Providers must be able to properly document services for which they received payment from Medicaid,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “Doing otherwise drains Medicaid of precious resources, and my office will steadfastly guard New York taxpayer dollars expended to ensure quality care to those most in need.” NY

June 29, 2015

New York announced a settlement with pharmacy Trinity Homecare LLC that returns $2.5 million to the state’s Medicaid program. A whistleblower filed a lawsuit in 2009 alleging that Trinity pushed infusion drugs, which are prescribed to manage symptoms, to hemophilia patients and presented claims to Medicaid for unneeded or excessive quantity of these drugs. The whistleblower alleged improper billing for drug deliveries, including ones that patients refused to accept and excess shipments. In at least one instance, these expensive drugs were allegedly left outside a patient’s home without signature by the patient. NY

June 23, 2015

Georgia announced a prison sentence for the owner of Senior Care of Columbus, Inc., following her guilty plea to Medicaid fraud and related charges. From 2009 until 2011, the defendant submitted numerous fraudulent claims for and was reimbursed for services that were not provided to patients. An extraordinarily high percentage of claims submitted by defendant for reimbursement to Georgia Medicaid lacked any documentation, and it was discovered that in many instances, the defendant billed Medicaid on days when patients received no services at all, and for patients who had been discharged. GA

June 18, 2015

Florida joined the federal government in announcing charges against 73 South Florida residents for their alleged participation in various schemes to defraud Medicare and Medicaid out of more than $262 million. FL

June 18, 2015

Connecticut commenced a case under that state’s False Claims Act against the co-owners of a psychiatric clinic alleged to have submitted false claims to the state’s Medicaid program, Connecticut Medical Assistance Program (CMAP), from January 2010 through December 2014. According to the complaint, the defendants illegally submitted false claims for reimbursement while knowingly retaining and concealing the overpayment. The psychiatrist is alleged to have engaged in a systemic practice of knowingly “upcoding” the claims for reimbursement she submitted to the CMAP. For example, as the complaint alleges, she routinely double, triple, and in some cases quadruple-booked appointments for her Medicaid patients, then submitted CMAP using a reimbursement code, which required her to see the patient for approximately 75 to 80 minutes when, in fact, she saw each patient for as little as 5-10 minutes. The state’s complaint identifies 113 days where the psychaitrist billed the CMAP for more than 24 hours of service. Both defendants are also alleged to have attempted to conceal from state auditors the existence of databases that contained information which would have established evidence that the claims were false. CT

June 11, 2015

Louisiana announced that its Medicaid program will receive over $5 million as a result of a settlement between specialty pharmacy company Accredo Health Group, Inc. and 40 states and the federal government, resolving allegations that Accredo engaged in a scheme with drugmaker Novartis to boost sales of the drug Exjade, which is used to treat chronic iron overload due to blood transfusions. Accredo is accused of improperly directing nurses to contact Medicaid beneficiaries to encourage continued use of Exjade. Accredo’s goal in the scheme was to earn higher sales revenue, additional dispensing fees and more rebates from Novartis. The nurses were directed to discuss Exjade’s common side effects, but not its less common but more severe possible side effects such as kidney or liver problems. LA

May 6, 2015

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced that Carewell Ambulette, Inc. and its owner, Kurien Palliankal have pleaded guilty to stealing more than $200,000 from the New York Medicaid program. Palliankal will be sentenced to six months in jail, followed by five years of probation, and will also be required to pay full restitution to Medicaid. Carewell will be fined $10,000. From July 2006 through March 2010, Palliankal and Carewell defrauded the Medicaid system by doctoring the request forms received from the medical providers. These forms authorized taxi service, but Palliankal changed the forms to appear as though they authorized the more expensive ambulette service, which Medicaid pays at a rate four times higher than taxi service. NY

April 28, 2015

Life Focus Center of Charlestown, Inc., a former nonprofit that provided day habilitation services to individuals with developmental disabilities, agreed to pay more than $94,000 to settle claims it violated the Massachusetts False Claims Act by billing the state’s Medicaid program (MassHealth) for services not provided. MA