A bankruptcy judge in Kentucky has approved the $5.7 million sale of a high-profile fraud investigation target to LHC Group Inc. The Lafayette, La.-based chain outbid Atlanta-based Five Points Healthcare’s $3.5 million offer for Nurses’ Registry and Home Health Corp., reports the Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper.
Last month, Nurses Registry and the estate of its former owner, the deceased Lennie House, agreed to settle “allegations of widespread healthcare fraud” for $16 million, the Department of Justice said in a release. Spouse and former Nurses’ Registry exec Vicki House agreed to a $1.1 million settlement of individual fraud charges earlier this year (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XXIV, No. 27).
The feds accused Nurses Registry and the Houses of a laundry list of misdeeds, ranging from furnishing physician kickbacks to billing for ineligible patients to forging docs’ signatures. The agency infamously offered kickbacks like tickets to Taylor Swift concerts and the Kentucky Derby, and bottles of liquor.
The settlement arose from a whistleblower lawsuit filed by former employees Alisia Robinson-Hill and David Price, the DOJ notes. They will receive an unspecified share of the settlement.