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This archive displays posts tagged as relevant to Medicare and fraud in the Medicare program. You may also be interested in our pages:

Page 10 of 55

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,

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 22, 2022

Medical device manufacturer Biotronik Inc. has agreed to pay nearly $13 million to resolve allegations of paying kickbacks to physicians in order to induce use of their implantable cardiac devices, and causing false claims to be submitted to Medicare and Medicaid.  The alleged violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute and False Claims Act were brought to light in a qui tam suit by Jeffrey Bell and Andrew Schmid, both former sales representatives for Biotronik, who as part of the settlement will receive a $2.1 million relator’s share.  USAO CDCA

Tagged in: Anti-Kickback and Stark, FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Medicaid, Medical Devices and DME, Medicare, Whistleblower Case, Whistleblower Rewards,

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,

July 13, 2022

Solera Specialty Pharmacy and its CEO, Nicholas Saraniti, has agreed to pay $1.31 million and enter into a three-year integrity agreement to resolve allegations of defrauding Medicare.  Solera allegedly submitted fraudulent claims for Evzio—a high-priced version of naloxone, which reverses opioid overdoses—based on prior authorization requests that contained false clinical information, that were not actually approved by physicians, and that improperly listed Solera’s contact information as if it were the physician’s.  In connection with a criminal information, Solera has also entered into a deferred prosecution agreement.  The whistleblower in this case, a former employee of Evzio manufacturer kaléo Inc. named Rebecca Socol, will receive a $262,000 share of the settlement.  DOJ

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Medicare, Pharma Fraud, Whistleblower Case, Whistleblower Rewards,

July 7, 2022

A hospital in West Virginia, Weirton Medical Center, has agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle allegations of submitting or causing to be submitted claims to Medicare that resulted from an improper financial relationship.  In violation of the Stark Law, Weirton allegedly paid referring physicians compensation based on volume and that exceeded fair market value.  USAO NDWV

Tagged in: Anti-Kickback and Stark, FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Hospital Fraud, Medicare,

July 1, 2022

MCS Advantage, Inc. has agreed to pay $4.2 million in order to resolve allegations of submitted or causing to be submitted false claims to Medicare.  In violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute and False Claims Act, MCS allegedly distributed 1,703 gift cards totaling $42,575 to administrative assistants working under healthcare providers in order to induce referrals of Medicare beneficiaries to its plan.  USAO PR

Tagged in: Anti-Kickback and Stark, FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Medicare,

June 29, 2022

Citadel Care Centers LLC and Plaza Rehab and Nursing Center will pay $7.85 million for switching their elderly residents’ Medicare coverage to maximize the Medicare payments the centers would receive--a blatant False Claims Act violation. Citadel directed Plaza employees to disenroll residents from Medicare Advantage Plans and enroll them in Original Medicare instead—without the residents’ knowledge or consent—to maximize their reimbursements. USAO SDNY

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Medicare, Provider Fraud, SNF,

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