Provider Fraud

November 15, 2019

California healthcare system Sutter Health, its hospital the Sutter Memorial Center Sacramento, and the Sacramento Cardiovascular Surgeons Medical Group, Inc., will pay a total of $43.12 million to resolve allegations that the entities violated the Stark Law and improperly double-billed Medicare.  Specifically, Sutter Memorial will pay $30.5 million to resolve charges of wrongfully billing Medicare for services referred to the hospital by Sac Cardio, with whom the hospital maintained improper financial arrangements that overcompensated the Sac Cardio physicians.  In addition, Sutter will pay $15.12 million to resolve allegations that it paid physicians compensation at rates that exceeded fair market value, leased office space to them at below-market rates, and reimbursed them for expenses at inflated rates.  In addition to the Stark Law violations, the settlement also resolved allegations that Sac Cardio submitted duplicative bills for physician assistant services (Sac Cardio will pay $500,000 to resolve these claims), and allegations that several Sutter ambulatory surgical centers had double-billed Medicare for radiological services that had actually been provided, and billed for, by a separate entity.  DOJ reported that allegations against Sutter Memorial and Sac Cardio were first made in a qui tam lawsuit brought by Laurie Hanvey, who will receive $5.9 million from the settlement, and that Sutter Health self-disclosed other conduct at issue in the settlement. DOJ; USAO ED Cal; USAO ND Cal

November 14, 2019

Following a guilty plea in 2018, Sandra Haar was sentenced to five years in prison and has agreed to sell 13 properties, including former clinic properties, to resolve civil claims under the False Claims Act that she and the non-profit provider of health and dental services she ran, Horisons Unlimited, submitted fraudulent claims to Medi-Cal, including claims for services rendered by unlicensed providers, claims for services that were not rendered at all, and claims for unnecessary services. Haar was also alleged to have received thousands in kickbacks from a laboratory in exchange for sending Horisons patients to the lab. Haar will be excluded from Medicare participation for 20 years; the former Horisons CFO, Norman Haar, will be excluded for 15 years.  USAO ED Cal

November 13, 2019

Vibra Healthcare, LLC and related entities, which operate freestanding acute medical rehabilitation hospitals and long term acute care hospitals nationwide, will pay $6.25 million to resolve allegations that Highlands Rehabilitation Hospital in El Paso, Texas, which was operated by Vibra, submitted false claims to Medicare.  Specifically, Vibra was alleged to have billed for services that did not meet conditions of payment, including requirements that inpatient rehabilitation facilities provide an intensive level of services to patients.  The case was initiated by a qui tam complaint filed by Thomas A. Floren.  USAO WDTex

October 29, 2019

Encompass Health Corporation (EHC), f/k/a HealthSouth Corporation, has agreed to pay $4 million to resolve of improperly billing Medicare.  According to the DOJ, between 2008 and 2012, an inpatient rehabilitation facility owned by EHC had improperly assigned low Functional Independence Measure scores on Patient Assessment Instrument forms in a bid to receive higher reimbursements from Medicare.  USAO NV

October 28, 2019

Sanford Health, Sanford Medical Center, and Sanford Clinic have agreed to pay $20.25 million and enter into a Corporate Integrity Agreement in order to resolve alleged violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute and False Claims Act.  Despite warnings by several physicians that a top neurosurgeon was illegally profiting off his use of implantable medical devices as well as performing medically unnecessary surgeries involving the devices, Sanford did nothing to stop the offender, allowing Medicare and Medicaid to continue being defrauded.  The allegations were raised by Sanford surgeons Drs. Carl Dustin Bechtold and Bryan Wellman, who will share in a $3.4 million cut of the settlement proceeds.  DOJ; USAO SD

October 18, 2019

Following a government analysis of Medicare claims data and a whistleblower's qui tam lawsuit, seven former Osteo Relief Institutes and their owners have agreed to pay more than $7.1 million to settle claims of defrauding Medicare.  The alleged fraud involved clinics in Arizona, California, Kentucky, New Jersey, and Texas billing Medicare for medically unnecessary treatments for osteoarthritis, including viscosupplementation injections and knee braces.  The whistleblower involved will receive $857,550.  DOJ

October 10, 2019

Traverse Anesthesia Associates, P.C. (TAA) and six of its anesthesiologists have agreed to pay $607,966 to resolve a partially-intervened qui tam lawsuit jointly filed by two former employees.  In violation of the False Claims Act, TAA allegedly failed to meet regulatory requirements and conditions of payment in submissions to Medicare.  The unnamed whistleblowers will share a $120,000 award.  USAO WDMI

October 9, 2019

The largest operator of kidney dialysis clinics in the United States has agreed to pay $5.2 million to resolve a lawsuit alleging it submitted false claims to Medicare for excessive and unnecessary immune tests.  From 2013 to 2010, Fresenius Medical Care Holdings, Inc. allegedly billed Medicare for Hepatitis B surface antigen tests it performed on patients already known to be immune, at a frequency well above that established by Medicare.  For exposing the alleged False Claims Act violations, former employee Christopher Drennen will receive a 27.5% share of the recovery.  USAO MA