Home Health & Hospice Week

It doesn't have to be your own employee who drags you into an expensive qui tam lawsuit. National chain LHC Group Inc. is shelling out $65 million to settle false claims charges first lodged in a lawsuit from an employee of a consulting firm it hired for quality initiatives. The suit pending in Louisiana federal court charges that certain LHC medical records did not contain sufficient documentation to support medical necessity, LHC explains in a release.

LHC "disputes the government's claims and includes no admission or determination of wrongdoing" in the settlement, it notes. The Lafayette, La.-based company "chose to settle to avoid the disruption and expense of a multi-year legal dispute with the government," it says.

Important point: "The settlement includes a release from the government for any claims for the period of 2006 to 2008 related to home health services, including skilled nursing visits, therapy visits and home health aide visits," LHC says. This is good news for the company, since the Department of Justice has been looking into the four publicly traded home care companies' therapy billing during this time period. Under the settlement, LHC also has entered into a corporate integrity agreement with the HHS Office of Inspector General.