Medicare
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November 3, 2022
Titan Medical Compliance, LLC, and its chiropractor owner Timothy Warren, have been ordered to pay over $15 million to resolve claims that they falsely marketed auricular electro-acupuncture devices as FDA-approved and Medicare-reimbursable, when in fact they are not. The judgment against Warren and Titan is the latest in a federal investigation into the improper billing of these non-surgical devices. USAO EDPAOctober 31, 2022
Felix Amos of Houston, TX will serve 30 months in federal prison and will pay over $21 million in restitution for his role in a Medicare fraud scheme carried out with two other co-defendants. From 2010 to 2015, Amos owned and operated home health companies Dayton Health Bridges, Access Practical Solutions, Advanced Holistic, GetUpandWalk Inc., and Guaranty Home Health Agency. Amos and his co-conspirators submitted false claims to Medicare for patients that did not need or receive services, including deceased or incarcerated persons, and for services not ordered by a physician. USAO SDTXOctober 18, 2022
Carter Healthcare LLC, affiliates CHC Holdings and Carter-Florida, president Stanley Carter, and Chief Operations Officer Bradley Carter have agreed to pay $23 million and $7.2 million to settle two whistleblower cases alleging violations of the False Claims Act. The first case, filed in the Western District of Oklahoma, alleged that the Oklahoma-based home health company paid illegal kickbacks to physicians under the guise of medical directorships in order to induce referrals. The second case, filed in the Southern District of Florida by former therapists Sharon Mahaffey and Mark Brimer, alleged that Carter Healthcare billed Medicare for medically unnecessary therapy and upcoded patient diagnoses for higher reimbursements. As part of the settlements, defendants Stanley and Bradley Carter have agreed to be excluded from participating in government healthcare programs for 5 years, and whistleblowers Mahaffey and Brimer will split a $1.3 million relator’s share. USAO WDOK; USAO SDFLOctober 17, 2022
Sutter Health has agreed to pay more than $13 million to settle claims of billing Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program for quantitative urine testing that were in fact performed by third-party labs. The company has already paid more than $6.5 million and is due to pay the remaining $6.5 million in the next 30 days. USAO NDCAOctober 6, 2022
A man in Missouri who was convicted of committing healthcare fraud through various durable medical equipment companies has been sentenced to 3 years in prison and ordered to repay $7.5 million. Jamie McCoy, who owned or operated AE Wellness LLC, Summit Medical Supply, Patriot Medical Supply, and DME Device Co., had worked in conjunction with marketing firms and a telemedicine doctor to cause fraudulent claims derived from illegal kickbacks to be submitted to Medicare and TRICARE. After the scheme was discovered and McCoy and AE Wellness were suspended from further participation, two of McCoy’s associates opened the other companies to continue the fraud, while concealing McCoy’s role in the operation. USAO EDMOSeptember 30, 2022
The owners and operators of three home health care companies in Illinois, Patricia and Felix Omorogbe, have been sentenced to a combined 3.5 years in prison and ordered to pay a combined $8 million in restitution for paying illegal kickbacks to patient marketers in exchange for referrals of Medicare beneficiaries. According to the DOJ, in addition to the kickbacks, Patricia Omorogbe, a registered nurse, also falsely certified that she performed assessments on patients, causing false claims to be submitted to Medicare. DOJSeptember 26, 2022
Biogen Inc. has agreed to pay $900 million to resolve allegations by former employee Michael Bawduniak that the pharmaceutical company paid illegal kickbacks to physicians in order to induce prescriptions of their multiple sclerosis drugs, causing false claims to be submitted to Medicare and Medicaid. According to Bawduniak, over a five-year period, Biogen paid kickbacks in the form of speaker honoraria, training fees, consulting fees, and free meals. The vast majority of the settlement proceeds (over $840 million) will go to the federal government, while the remainder will be divided among 15 states. USAO MASeptember 9, 2022
Daniel Pintado Cazola, the true owner of durable medical equipment company Myers Professional Services, has been sentenced to over 7 years in prison for defrauding Medicare and Medicaid and going to great extents to conceal his connection to the crimes. Pintado Cazola admitted that he purchased lists of Medicare beneficiaries and directed employees to submit over $2.3 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medicaid for durable medical equipment that was not medically necessary, not prescribed by a doctor, and not supplied to a beneficiary. USAO SDFLTelehealth Boomed During the Pandemic - and so Did Telehealth Fraud
Posted 08/24/22
