A few days ago, New York media was filled with surprise that U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and his friend, Dr. Salomon Melgen, will be retried on corruption charges. More eyebrows were raised later when a judge granted a request to acquit the pair on several charges they...
Month: January 2018
Married couple accused of forgery, more in alleged Medicare fraud
A federal grand jury recently indicted a married couple that runs an in-home health care company. Prosecutors allege that the couple and their company defrauded Medicare.The man and woman both insist that they are innocent of the 47 charges contained in the indictment...
Major consideration for valuations of your health care business
After you decide to sell your health care business, you must, of course, have some idea of its value to attract buyers. However, five people could scrutinize your business and come up with five quite different estimates. In part, the estimate depends on the person's...
Scripps Health settles unauthorized claims case for $1.5 million
Scripps Health, a health care system based in San Diego, has agreed to settle federal False Claims Act allegations for $1.5 million. The Department of Justice accused the system of allowing unauthorized physical therapists to bill Medicare and TRICARE.As you may know,...
Texas physicians group agrees to health care fraud settlement
Texas-based EmCare doctors "provide emergency medicine, hospital medicine, general and trauma surgery, anesthesiology and radiology/teleradiology care to hundreds of hospitals and healthcare facilities throughout the country," the...
Physicians groups and DOJ settle kickback claims
Negative publicity began to swirl around now-shuttered Health Management Associates back in 2012 when news magazine "60 Minutes" aired a segment alleging that the hospital chain pressured emergency room doctors to admit patients whether they needed care or not. The...
Can technology end Medicare fraud?
The Office of Inspector General recently issued a report card for the Department of Health and Human Services. It said that while HHS met many of the requirements in a 2002 law to curb improper payments, it did not fully comply for fiscal 2016. The Inspector General...
Kool Smiles and management company settle False Claims case
The U.S. Department of Justice announced recently that it has achieved a settlement with Kool Smiles dental clinics and their management company, Benevis. The clinics and management company are accused of charging Medicaid programs in 17 states for unnecessary...
Eye doctor awaits sentencing for Medicare fraud conviction
Two very different portraits were painted recently of Dr. Salomon Melgen, the Harvard-trained ophthalmologist. At his sentencing hearing, Melgen was painted by prosecutors as a greedy doctor willing to subject his patients to painful treatments that were medically...
Court rejects Medicare fraud appeals
"Upon thorough review and with the benefit of oral argument, we affirm on all issues," the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit said as it shot down the hopes of a doctor and three therapists. The four had appealed their convictions on conspiracy to commit...