A settlement has been reached to resolve False Claims Act allegations against Chemed Corporation and Vitas Hospice Services.
The allegations arose from a lawsuit that claimed Chemed Corporation and various wholly-owned subsidiaries, including Vitas Hospice Services LLC and Vitas Healthcare Corporation submitted false claims for hospice services to Medicare.
According to the government, between 2002 and 2013 Vitas knowingly submitted or caused to be submitted false claims to Medicare for services to hospice patients who were not terminally ill. Allegedly, Vitas billed for patients who were not terminally ill and thus did not qualify for the hospice benefit. Furthermore, allegedly the defendants rewarded employees with bonuses for the number of patients receiving hospice services, without regard to whether they were actually terminally ill and whether they would have benefited from continuing curative care.
In addition, allegedly between 2002 and 2013, Vitas knowingly submitted or caused to be submitted false claims to Medicare for continuous home care services that were not necessary, not actually provided, or not performed in accordance with Medicare requirements. Allegedly, the defendants set goals for the number of continuous home care days billed to Medicare and used aggressive marketing tactics and pressured staff to increase the volume of continuous home care claims, without regard to whether the patients actually required this level of crisis care.
Medicare is a federal health insurance program for seniors and some younger people with disabilities, which is funded by taxpayers.
The Medicare program’s hospice benefit provides critical services to some of the most vulnerable patients in the country, and the Justice Department “will continue to ensure that this valuable 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,” Readler said.
Reportedly, the settlement by Chemed also resolves three lawsuits filed under the whistleblower provision of the False Claims Act.
The whistleblowers share of the settlement has not yet been determined.
