DOJ announces settlement in alleged hospice fraud case
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
A national hospice care provider has agreed to pay a multimillion dollar settlement in response to allegations it submitted false claims for services at several U.S. locations, including one in South Bend.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday that Gentiva, successor to Kindred at Home, has agreed to pay $19.428 million to resolve allegations that Kindred at Home and related entities knowingly submitted false claims and knowingly retained overpayments for hospice services provided to patients who were ineligible to receive hospice benefits under various federal health care programs.
Gentiva’s hospice operations, headquartered in Atlanta, include entities that previously operated Kindred at Home hospice locations under the names Avalon, Kindred, SouthernCare and SouthernCare New Beacon.
The settlement resolves allegations that certain Kindred, SouthernCare and SouthernCare New Beacon hospice locations knowingly submitted, or caused to be submitted, false claims for hospice services provided to patients who were ineligible for hospice benefits under Medicare and other federal health care programs because the patients were not terminally ill.
Those hospice locations, in addition to the South Bend site, were Kindred’s locations in Warwick, Rhode Island; Beaumont, Texas; and Independence, Missouri; SouthernCare New Beacon’s location in Demopolis, Alabama; and SouthernCare’s locations in Daphne, Alabama; Mobile, Alabama; and Youngstown, Ohio.
“The hospice benefit under Medicare and other federal health care programs provides critical services to some of the most vulnerable patients,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said in a news release. “The department will ensure that this important benefit is used to assist those who need it, and not as an opportunity to line the pockets of those who seek to abuse it.”
The settlement also resolves the complaint’s allegations that the defendants improperly concealed or avoided Avalon’s obligation to repay those hospice claims.
The settlement also resolves allegations that those Kindred, SouthernCare and SouthernCare New Beacon locations knowingly and improperly concealed or avoided obligations to repay the foregoing hospice claims.