Fifteen Texas Doctors Agree to Pay over $2.8 Million to Settle Kickback Allegations
33 Texas Doctors Have Settled Related Health Care Fraud Allegations
Seattle Whistleblower Attorneys report that Fifteen additional Texas doctors have agreed to pay a total of $2.83 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations involving illegal kickbacks in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute and Stark Law, and to cooperate with the Department of Justice’s investigations of and litigation against other parties.
The Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits offering, paying, soliciting or receiving remuneration to induce referrals of items or services covered by Medicare, Medicaid and other federally-funded programs. The Stark Law forbids a hospital or laboratory from billing Medicare for certain services referred by physicians that have a financial relationship with the hospital or laboratory. The Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Law are intended to ensure that medical providers’ judgments are not compromised by improper financial incentives and are instead based on the best interests of their patients.
The settlements resolve allegations that 15 Texas doctors violated the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Law by receiving thousands of dollars in remuneration from nine management service organizations (MSOs) in exchange for ordering laboratory tests from Rockdale Hospital dba Little River Healthcare (Little River), True Health Diagnostics LLC (True Health), and/or Boston Heart Diagnostics Corporation (Boston Heart). Little River allegedly funded the remuneration to certain doctors, in the form of volume-based commissions paid to independent contractor recruiters, who used MSOs to pay numerous doctors for their referrals. The MSO payments to the doctors were allegedly disguised as investment returns but in fact were based on, and offered in exchange for, the doctors’ referrals.
As part of their settlements, the 15 physicians have agreed to cooperate with the Department of Justice’s investigations of and litigation against other parties involved in the alleged violations of law.
The claims asserted in the United States’ complaint are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.
Source: Dept. of Justice
The Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits offering, paying, soliciting or receiving remuneration to induce referrals of items or services covered by Medicare, Medicaid and other federally-funded programs. The Stark Law forbids a hospital or laboratory from billing Medicare for certain services referred by physicians that have a financial relationship with the hospital or laboratory. The Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Law are intended to ensure that medical providers’ judgments are not compromised by improper financial incentives and are instead based on the best interests of their patients.
The settlements resolve allegations that 15 Texas doctors violated the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Law by receiving thousands of dollars in remuneration from nine management service organizations (MSOs) in exchange for ordering laboratory tests from Rockdale Hospital dba Little River Healthcare (Little River), True Health Diagnostics LLC (True Health), and/or Boston Heart Diagnostics Corporation (Boston Heart). Little River allegedly funded the remuneration to certain doctors, in the form of volume-based commissions paid to independent contractor recruiters, who used MSOs to pay numerous doctors for their referrals. The MSO payments to the doctors were allegedly disguised as investment returns but in fact were based on, and offered in exchange for, the doctors’ referrals.
As part of their settlements, the 15 physicians have agreed to cooperate with the Department of Justice’s investigations of and litigation against other parties involved in the alleged violations of law.
The claims asserted in the United States’ complaint are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.
Source: Dept. of Justice