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A New Day for Data Whistleblowers: DOJ Joins First False Claims Act Case Brought by Data Analysis Firm Whistleblower

Posted  06/17/21
By Mary Inman, Max Voldman
nurse checking elderly woman
In a potential watershed moment, data whistleblowing pioneer Integra Med Analytics secured their first government intervention in a False Claims Act case alleging Medicare billing fraud against a group of skilled nursing facilities in New York. Integra's action alleges that over the course of almost a decade, the fraud resulted in overcharges exceeding $129 million.

Integra's Data Whistleblowing

Integra purports to...

May 21, 2021

SavaSeniorCare LLC and related entities (“Sava”) will pay $11.2 million, plus potentially more pursuant to an “ability-to-pay” settlement, to resolve allegations that Sava violated the False Claims Act by causing its skilled nursing facilities to bill Medicare for rehabilitation therapy services that were not reasonable, necessary, or skilled, and that Sava billed the Medicare and Medicaid programs for grossly substandard (i.e., “worthless”) skilled nursing services.  The settlement stems from four separate qui tam complaints filed by whistleblowers Rita Hayward, Trammel Kukoyi, Terrence Scott, James Thornton, and Barbara Roberts, who will share an undisclosed portion of the government’s recovery.  In 2015, the United States intervened in the litigation and filed a consolidated False Claims Act complaint, alleging inter alia that Sava had exerted significant pressure on its skilled nursing facilities to meet unrealistic corporate targets for the highest Medicare reimbursement rates without regard to patients’ actual clinical needs, and improperly delayed the discharge of patients from its facilities in order to increase billings.  Sava will enter into a five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement as part of the settlement.  DOJ

April 19, 2021

Maryland physician Njideka Udochi of Millennium Family Practice will pay $660,000 to resolve allegations that she submitted false claims for auricular stimulation, or "P-Stim," devices.  Udochi billed Medicare using a billing code covering the surgical implantation of a type of neurostimulator, but P-Stim devices are not surgically implanted, and are not approved for reimbursement from Medicare.  USAO MD

December 2, 2020

The owner and operator of Atlanta-based Elite Homecare has been sentenced to over five years in prison and ordered to pay $999,999 in restitution for defrauding Medicaid of nearly $1 million.  As a provider under the Georgia Pediatric Program (GAPP)—an in-home nursing program for Medicaid-eligible children with severe physical and cognitive disabilities—Diandra Bankhead allegedly submitted thousands of claims for services that were fraudulent in a myriad of ways.  Some of the claims falsely represented that employees provided more than 24 hours of services in a given day to multiple children simultaneously (including to children whose families had not retained Elite, and by RNs who did not know their credentials were being used), while other claims contained fraudulent credentialing information and fraudulent supporting documentation, or were upcoded to induce higher payments from Medicaid.  Additionally, Bankhead allegedly “sold” information about twenty of Elite’s former clients to another Atlanta-based home health provider in exchange for a percentage of the reimbursements from Medicaid.  USAO NDGA

September 3, 2020

Having previously pleaded guilty to healthcare fraud and related charges, Arizona urgent care provider UCXtra Umbrella, LLC, which did business as "Urgent Care Extra," was sentenced to pay restitution of $12.5 million.  Defendant admitted that it ordered tests and procedures that were not medically necessary and that its billings intentionally overstated the complexity of services to patients in order to receive inflated reimbursements from private insurance companies. USAO AZ

Windfall to Health Insurers Due to COVID-19 Is Not Yet Resulting in Resolution of FCA Risk Adjustment Cases

Posted  08/21/20
As health insurers book record profits during the COVID-19 pandemic due to a dramatic decline in elective surgeries and procedures, this seems like a good time to ask about the status of False Claims Act litigation against Medicare Advantage Organizations (MAOs) relating to risk adjustment fraud.  Given the dire shortfall in state and federal money to fight the pandemic, when will MAOs begin paying back the billions...

August 19, 2020

Metropolitan Jewish Health System Hospice and Palliative Care agreed to pay a total of $5.225 million resolve civil allegations that it billed Medicare and Medicaid for services rendered to hospice patients at heightened levels of care for which the patients did not qualify, in violation of the False Claims Act. A government investigation following the filing of a whistleblower complaint determined that defendant falsely claimed that some of its patients required heightened “continuous home care services” and “general inpatient services,” thereby entitling the defendant to artificially inflated reimbursements.  USAO ED NY

July 23, 2020

Progenity, Inc., f/k/a Ascendant MDx, Inc., has agreed to pay a total of $49 million to resolve allegations that the California-based clinical laboratory submitted false claims to Medicaid, the VA, TRICARE, and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) through different fraudulent schemes.  First, from 2012 to 2016, Progenity allegedly billed the programs for non-reimbursable prenatal tests using a reimbursable billing code.  Second, in claims originally brought by a whistleblower under the False Claims Act, the company was alleged to violate the Anti-Kickback Statue by providing improper incentives to physicians—including paying above fair market value for blood specimen “draw fees”, providing tens of thousands of dollars in free food and alcohol, and routinely reducing or waiving co-insurance or deductibles—in order to induce physicians to order their tests.  Approximately $35.9 million of the settlement proceeds will go toward resolving federal claims, with the remaining $13.1 million paid to different states.  AG NC; USAO SDCA; USAO SDNY

July 13, 2020

Longwood Management Company and 27 affiliated skilled nursing facilities have agreed to pay $16.7 million to resolve allegations raised by whistleblowers Judy Boyce, Benjamin Monsod, and Keith Pennetti in two separate qui tam filings, that six Longwood facilities knowingly submitted false claims to Medicare.  Between 2018 to 2012, Longwood allegedly pressured its rehabilitation therapists to increase the amount of therapy provided to Medicare Part A patients, regardless of medical necessity, so it could claim Ultra High levels of service, which are reimbursed at the highest rate.  As part of the settlement, Longwood will enter into a five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement, and Boyce, Monsod, and Pennetti will share a $3 million award.  DOJ; USDC CDCA

June 25, 2020

Georgia-based Piedmont Healthcare, Inc. has agreed to pay $16 million to resolve whistleblower-brought allegations that it violated the Anti-Kickback Statute and False Claims Act.  The relator in this case, a former Piedmont physician, alleged that between 2009 and 2013, Piedmont’s case managers overturned physician recommendations for outpatient care by submitting claims for more expensive inpatient care to Medicare and Medicaid.  Furthermore, when the healthcare system acquired the Atlanta Cardiology Group in 2007, it allegedly paid far above fair market value for a catherization lab that was partly owned by the practice group.  For bringing a successful enforcement action, the unnamed relator will receive a share of nearly $3 million of the settlement proceeds. USAO SDGA
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