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Page 26 of 55

Top Ten Healthcare Fraud Recoveries of 2019

Posted  01/24/20
stethoscope on dollars
Consistent with the trend in prior years, the bulk of the Justice Department’s fraud and false claims recoveries in 2019 stemmed from healthcare fraud matters.  And again, most of the funds recovered arose from cases originated by whistleblowers under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act.  Not surprisingly, seven of the top ten spots in our list involved false claims act lawsuits against drug companies...

January 23, 2020

Arch Health Partners, Inc. has agreed to pay $2.9 million to resolve fraud allegations brought by a former employee turned whistleblower, Catherine Jones.  Jones alleged in a qui tam suit that the San Diego-based healthcare provider had falsely billed Medicare for evaluation and management services that lacked sufficient documentation, in violation of the False Claims Act.  Based on self-disclosures by Arch Health, the United States also alleged that referring physicians were being compensated above fair market value, in violation of the Anti-Kickback and Stark Acts.  Jones will receive $183,830 of the settlement proceeds.  USAO SDCA

January 16, 2020

Udaya Shetty, a psychiatrist in Virginia, was sentenced to over two years in prison and has agreed to pay over $1 million to the United States and the Commonwealth of Virginia to resolve allegations of submitting false claims to Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE.  Shetty was accused of billing for services that average about 40-60 minutes long, despite quadruple booking patients and only seeing them for about 5-10 minutes each.  The scheme began at his own practice, Behavioral & Neuropsychiatric Group, in 2013, and continued at a new practice, Quietly Radiant Psychiatric Services, in 2017.  As a result of his actions, government health programs were defrauded of more than $450,000.  USAO EDVA

January 15, 2020

ResMed Corp. has agreed to pay $37.5 million to resolve five whistleblower-brought lawsuits alleging that the durable medical equipment (DME) manufacturer paid illegal kickbacks to suppliers, sleep labs, and other health providers, in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute and False Claims Act.  $6.2 million of the settlement will be split amongst the whistleblowers, who had revealed that ResMed improperly provided or helped provide free or below cost call center services, patient outreach services, medical equipment and installation, and interest-free loans, in exchange for business.  DOJ; USAO EDNY; USAO NC; USAO NDIA; USAO SC; USAO SDCA

January 15, 2020

TMJ & Orofacial Pain Treatment Centers of Wisconsin has agreed to pay $1 million to settle a qui tam suit alleging submissions of false claims to Medicare and TRICARE.  According to the anonymous whistleblower, who will receive an undisclosed share of the settlement, TMJ billed the government health programs for prosthetic devices as if they had been fabricated by in-house surgeons, when in fact they had been fabricated by an outside laboratory.  USAO EDWI

January 10, 2020

The owner of two Philadelphia-based testing laboratories has pleaded guilty and agreed to pay more than $77 million in restitution for participating in an illegal kickback scheme.  At his plea hearing, Ravitej Reddy admitted that his laboratories, Personalized Genetics, LLC and Med Health Services Management, LP, participated in a fraudulent scheme that took advantage of the labs' location in a high reimbursement area for Medicare cancer and pharmacogenetic testing the labs actually sent for testing to a laboratory that was located outside of the lucrative coverage area, because the labs lacked equipment to perform the tests themselves.  To secure the lab orders, Reddy admitted paying kickbacks to co-conspirators, including marketers that solicited specimens from Medicare beneficiaries, and a telemedicine practice that improperly authorized the tests without regard to medical necessity.  In addition to the restitution order, Reddy faces a maximum of 25 years in prison at his sentencing in February.  USAO WDPA

December 30, 2019

A defense contractor accused of submitting false claims on a contract with the U.S. Army has agreed to pay $3 million to resolve its liability.  Kansas-based LaForge & Budd Construction Company, Inc., had been tasked with raising the elevation of a dam at the Fort Sill Army Post in Oklahoma.  Although the contract specified that satisfactory fill be used, LaForge defied this by using materials such as pieces of concrete, rebar, and rubble, and then represented to the Army that it had fully complied with the contract's terms and conditions.  USAO WDOK

December 30, 2019

Medsurant Holdings, LLC, the nation's largest independent provider of Interoperative Neuromonitoring (IONM) services, has agreed to pay $1.9 million to settle allegations of defrauding Medicare.  According to the DOJ, from 2013 to 2016, Medsurant billed Medicare for IONM services—used to monitor patients’ nervous systems during high-risk surgeries—that were not provided exclusively to one patient or were concurrently provided to patients insured by private payors, in violation of Medicare rules as well as the False Claims Act.  USAO MDTN

December 5, 2019

Maryland-based internist Noman Thanwy, M.D. has paid over $176,000 to settle allegations of submitting false claims to Medicare for medically unnecessary autonomic nervous function and vestibular function tests.  Although the tests are typically performed only once per beneficiary to confirm diagnoses of relatively uncommon disorders, Dr. Thanwy, who lacked the necessary training and equipment to perform the tests, was allegedly using them to monitor patient symptoms.  USAO MD

December 3, 2019

In the second settlement to come out of a federal investigation into the generic pharmaceutical industry, Rising Pharmaceuticals Inc. has agreed to pay over $4 million to settle civil and criminal charges stemming from violations of the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute.  In the criminal case, Rising allegedly teamed up with a competing generic drug manufacturer to fix prices and divide up the market for a hypertension drug, Benazepril HCTZ, while in the civil case, the company allegedly paid and received illegal remuneration through similar arrangements with another generic drug manufacturer.  Under the newly signed deferred prosecution agreement, Rising has agreed to cooperate fully with the ongoing investigation.  DOJ; USAO EDPA
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