The federal courts have been busy of late, especially when it comes to convicting home health owners and operators for wage-fixing, fraud, kickbacks and other illegal schemes. One of the most recent examples is Akop Atoyan, the former co-owner of a Sacramento-based home health and hospice agency. He pleaded guilty last week to one count […]
Category: Fraud
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced that it will recover $9.3 million in back wages and liquidated damages. The funds stem from a Philadelphia health care staffing company misclassifying 1,756 employees, including home health aides, and depriving them of overtime wages. A consent judgment in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of […]
A home health nurse has pleaded guilty, in federal court in Boston, in relation to a $100 million home health care kickback scheme. Last week, Winnie Waruru pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud; one count of health care fraud; one count of conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks; two […]
A number of health care providers that billed Medicare for telehealth services likely did so in a fraudulent or wasteful manner, according to federal watchdogs. That finding and others like it dampen the chances of home health providers being able to bill for virtual care moving forward. That’s one major takeaway from a recent report […]
The federal government saw a return of nearly $1.9 billion in health care fraud settlements and judgments in 2021. Of this $1.9 billion, the Medicare Trust Funds received $1.2 billion, and the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) received roughly $98.7 million. The Health & Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) annual […]
Compassionate Homecare Inc., has agreed to pay $6.53 million to MassHealth in order to resolve allegations of unauthorized billing for services. The settlement irons out a 2018 lawsuit filed by the Attorney General’s office against Compassionate. The state’s lawsuit alleges that the company stole millions of dollars from MassHealth. Aside from the $6.53 million settlement, […]
Home health enforcement efforts have been on the rise in 2021, especially over the past couple of months. There have been developments with at least two multi-million-dollar fraud schemes, with the watchdog arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also releasing findings from a large hospice-related audit. On July 15, federal […]
Home health providers in the U.S. have paid at least $422.6 million to settle False Claims Act (FCA) allegations since 2012, according to a recently unveiled database from Nashville, Tennessee-based legal firm Bass, Berry & Sims. The total number of annual settlements have varied greatly, from a high of 14 in 2015 to a low […]
When a public health emergency was declared last March, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a variety of waivers allowing home health providers to more easily provide telehealth services during the crisis. Now, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) has announced an audit, dubbed the “HHA Telehealth Project,” that will examine home […]
The federal government saw $2.2 billion in civil fraud recoveries in 2020. Roughly 82% of those settlements and judgments — about $1.8 billion — were from matters related to the health care sector. That’s according to a recent report from Nashville, Tennessee-based law firm Bass, Berry & Sims. The report examined significant health care fraud […]
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