On December 23, 2024, various Aetna affiliates (referred to hereafter as Aetna) filed suit against Radiology Partners, Inc., a national, private-equity-backed radiology group, alleging that Radiology Partners defrauded the...more
As we detailed in a previous blog, on October 3, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) published a strategic plan to “safeguard[] the integrity of HHS grants and contracts.” The...more
DOJ Announces Agreement With Rite Aid to Settle Allegations of Violating the FCA and CSA in Relation to Opioid Dispensing - On July 10, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Rite Aid Corporation and 10 of its...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced its False Claims Act (“FCA”) enforcement statistics for FY 2023 and identified key priorities for FCA enforcement in 2024 and beyond. The DOJ continues to pursue FCA...more
Former Healthcare Executives Convicted for Health Insurance Policy Fraud Scheme - Steven Dorfman, the former chief executive officer and owner of the Florida-based healthcare company Simple Health, and John Sand, a former...more
On December 19, Michael Lonski, a Greenwich psychologist, was sentenced to a 27-month prison term and three more years of supervised release for a scheme to defraud Medicaid. Lonski submitted over 80,000 claims from 2014 to...more
The Department of Justice ("DOJ") recently announced a $1.75 million false claims settlement with a contractor that "improperly obtained government contracts that were set-aside for small businesses." The DOJ settlement...more
On Friday, July 21, 2023, DOJ announced it has reached a $377,453,150 settlement with Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (Booz Allen), the parent company of Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc., the large government and military...more
Question: I am under audit by a dental plan I participate with. The audit has identified a few issues in connection with how my billing employees have been submitting claims for payment. For example, the name of the treating...more
Transportation fraud isn’t new, but it’s new to Rivkin Rounds. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York recently announced that Yonkers resident Julio Alvarado was sentenced to 95 months in prison for...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on April 20 that it has brought criminal charges against 18 defendants across the U.S. for various fraud schemes related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The DOJ seized more than $16...more
Bass, Berry & Sims attorney Shannon Wiley, with Carine Leslie and Katie Garmon of PYA, P.C., recently discussed the complexities associated with billing, coding, and collecting for infusion services as part of the Infusion...more
The Department of Justice and other federal enforcement agencies continued to hotly pursue individuals and entities involved in criminal telefraud schemes in 2022, as evidenced by the national coordinated law enforcement...more
Physicians and practice managers: Keep an eye on medical billing or health services contractors acting on your behalf. Your practice is liable for any violations of state and federal healthcare fraud laws, including Stark...more
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut announced on November 3 that Ananthakumar Thillainathan, a physician with offices in Stratford and Milford, pleaded guilty to healthcare fraud and federal kickback...more
On August 15, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that a Long Island chiropractor pleaded guilty to healthcare fraud for billing a private insurance company over $1 million for acupuncture services that were never...more
Healthcare fraud related to durable medical equipment (DME) is extremely costly to insurers yet often continues without criminal or civil consequences. Fraudulent schemes by DME supply companies vary in complexity but...more
In May 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the creation of the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force. The Task Force is comprised of more than a dozen federal agencies that are investigating and prosecuting...more
What: The U.S. Supreme Court recently granted certiorari on a petition seeking to curtail the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) ability to dismiss False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam cases, even if DOJ has determined that the...more
As part of its ongoing effort to crack down on health care-related COVID-19 fraud, the U.S. Justice Department has launched a nationwide coordinated law enforcement action that recently led to criminal charges against 21...more
On April 20, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced criminal charges against 21 people across the country for COVID-19-related frauds. The defendants are accused of over $149 million in false billings to federal...more
On April 20, 2022, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced twenty-one (21) defendants were charged in nine (9) different districts related to $149 million in COVID-19-related false billing issues. $8 million in cash and...more
The DOJ announced charges against 21 people across nine federal districts for their alleged role in pandemic-related fraud schemes resulting in over $149 million in false billings to federal programs. This is the largest...more
The Department of Justice recently announced that a home-health services company has agreed to pay over $45,000 to resolve alleged False Claims Act (“FCA”) violations. Professional Family Care Services, Inc. (“PFCS”), a North...more
On February 1, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the second-largest annual total recoveries in the history of the False Claims Act (FCA)—$5.6 billion—for FY 2021 (October 2020 – September 2021)...more