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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 35 of 53

December 14, 2018

Tamar Tatarian, owner of Akhtmar Pharmacy, was found guilty for her part in a scheme to defraud Medicare out of more than $1.3 million in false claims for prescription drugs. According to evidence presented during the two-day trial, Tatarian submitted false claims to Medicare Part D plan sponsors between October 2015 and October 2017 for prescription drugs that Akhtmar pharmacy had not actually ordered from wholesalers, and therefore were not dispensed to Medicare beneficiaries. Tartarian tried to cover up the fraud by generating fake invoices that included wholesale drug purchases by the pharmacy which had not, in reality, ever happened. Tatarian was convicted of one count of health care fraud and two counts of wire fraud. DOJ    

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Medicare, Pharma Fraud,

Catch of the Week — PA Hospital and Health System Pays $12.5 Million to Settle FCA Allegations

Posted  12/14/18
Doctor discussing knee injury with patient seated on exam table
Coordinated Health Holding Company, LLC, a for-profit hospital and health system, and its founder, owner, and CEO, Emil DiIorio, M.D., have agreed to pay a combined $12.5 million to settle allegations of violating the False Claims Act for submitting false claims to Medicare and other federal health care programs for orthopedic surgeries. Coordinated Health is a for-profit hospital and health system based in the Lehigh...

Tagged in: Bundling and Unbundling, Catch of the Week, FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Hospital Fraud, Medical Billing Fraud, Medicare, Other Government Health Programs, Provider Fraud,

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December 13, 2018

Hospice care provider SouthernCare, Inc. has agreed to pay $5,863,426 for submitting fraudulent claims to Medicare between 2009 to 2014. Under Medicare's eligibility rules, in order for hospice care to be reimbursed, a patient must have a life expectancy of six months or less as certified by a physician, and terminal illnesses must be documented with appropriate records. However, according to qui tam complaints by former employees Dawn Hamrock and Patricia Beegle, SouthernCare billed Medicare for care provided to patients who were not Medicare eligible or who had no proof of Medicare eligibility. As part of the settlement, Hamrock and Beegle will share a $1.1 million whistleblower reward. USAO EDPA

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Lack of Medical Necessity, Medicare, Whistleblower Case, Whistleblower Rewards,

December 11, 2018

A New York-based audiology practice has agreed to pay $566,263.08 in connection with alleged violations of the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute. According to an unnamed whistleblower, Oviatt Hearing and Balance, LLC improperly billed Medicare and TRICARE for services rendered by unlicensed and unsupervised employees, as well as provided inappropriate inducements in the form of free iPads, Butterball turkeys, and gift cards, to Medicare and TRICARE beneficiaries to get them to choose Oviatt over other providers. For their role in exposing the fraud, the whistleblower stands to receive a relator's share of $120,000. USAO NDNY

Tagged in: Anti-Kickback and Stark, FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Improper Medical Personnel, Medicare, Other Government Health Programs, Whistleblower Case, Whistleblower Rewards,

December 11, 2018

Following qui tam complaints filed by two former employees, Western Medical Group and owners Benjamin George and Jody Rookstool have agreed to pay a total of $1,634,844 to settle allegations that the company violated the False Claims Act in submissions to Medicare. The two complaints, filed in December 2013 and February 2014, alleged that Western Medical violated Medicare's reimbursement rules by using a telemarketing company to solicit sales of knee and back braces from eligible Medicare beneficiaries. USAO UT

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

December 11, 2018

Coordinated Health Holding Company, LLC, a for-profit hospital and health system, and its founder, owner, and CEO, Emil DiIorio, M.D., have agreed to pay a combined $12.5 million to settle allegations of violating the False Claims Act in claims submitted to Medicare, Medicaid, and federal employee health insurers. From 2007 until 2014, under DiIorio's direction, Coordinated Health allegedly exploited a billing code called Modifier 59 in order to separately bill for orthopedic surgery charges that, properly billed, instead fall under a single "global" payment for each surgery. Even after outside consultants warned company executives about the improper practice in 2011 and 2013 and provided on-site training on the proper use of Modifier 59, Coordinated Health continued making false claims, causing federal healthcare payers to overpay by millions of dollars. As part of the settlement, the company has signed a Corporate Integrity Agreement for additional government oversight into its billing practices over the next five years. USAO EDPA

Tagged in: Bundling and Unbundling, FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Medicaid, Medical Billing Fraud, Medicare, Other Government Health Programs,

December 11, 2018

Aurora Health Care, Inc. has agreed to pay $12 million to settle allegations of defrauding Medicare and Wisconsin's Medicaid program in certain reimbursement claims filed between 2008 to 2012. According to the United States and State of Wisconsin, the healthcare provider and two physicians entered into improper financial relationships in violation of the federal and state False Claims Acts as well as the Stark Law. As a result, some of the claims that Aurora submitted to the government health programs were improper. Despite alerting the government to the illegal arrangement, a qui tam complaint filed by unnamed whistleblowers alleged different claims. Although the whistleblowers will still receive a share of the recovery, the government did not intervene in their lawsuit, which will be dismissed as part of the settlement. USAO EDWI

Tagged in: Anti-Kickback and Stark, FCA Federal, FCA State, Healthcare Fraud, Medicaid, Medicare, Whistleblower Case,

December 4, 2018

Dermatology Associates of Central New York, PLLC has agreed to pay $811,196.88 to settle claims that it overcharged Medicaid, Medicare, and TRICARE by falsely submitting claims under physicians' names, in violation of both the federal and New York False Claims Acts. A whistleblower complaint revealed that many of the physicians named on invoices were not in the office the day care was provided and could not have supervised in the rendering of services, and that some of the non-physician practitioners who provided care were not licensed to do so in the state of New York. As a result of bringing the fraud to light, the unnamed whistleblower will receive $138,000. USAO NDNY

Tagged in: FCA Federal, FCA State, Improper Medical Personnel, Medicaid, Medicare, Other Government Health Programs, Provider Fraud, Whistleblower Case, Whistleblower Rewards,

November 28, 2018

Dr. Thomas Baker, Dr. Carolyn Kochert, Dr. Larry L. Zhou, and Dr. Julie Y. Chao, have agreed to settle with the United States Government for violation of the Federal False Claims Act, the Physician Self-Referral law (“Stark”), and the Anti-Kickback Statute due to their involvement in a kickback scheme with Southwest Laboratories and Medscan Laboratory, thus causing false claims to be submitted to Medicare. The four physicians will pay a total amount of over $1.5 million. The individual amounts paid are as follows: Dr. Baker, of Tennessee - $484,481.80; Dr. Kochert, of Indiana - $129,682.84; Dr. Zhou, of Kentucky - $277,758.18; Dr. Chao, of Indiana - $650,000. DOJ

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

November 14, 2018

After pleading guilty last year, the owner of two health clinics in Detroit has been sentenced to 160 months in prison and ordered to pay over $6 million for defrauding Medicare. Along with multiple co-defendants, Jacklyn Price allegedly took part in a scheme to bill Medicare for services that were obtained through kickbacks, not medically necessary, not actually provided, or provided by an unlicensed practitioner. Her co-defendants, Millicent Traylor, Muhammad Qazi, and Christina Kimbrough, were all sentenced in September. DOJ

Tagged in: Anti-Kickback and Stark, Criminal Proceedings, Healthcare Fraud, Lack of Medical Necessity, Medical Billing Fraud, Medicare,

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