Home Health & Hospice Week

A hospice whistleblower lawsuit has led to a $5.5 million settlement with an Indianapolis-based long-term care provider.

In 2017, a former employee of a hospice doing business with American Senior Communities alleged that ASC was charging Medicare directly for various therapy services provided to beneficiaries who had been placed on hospice, when those services should have already been covered by the beneficiaries’ Medicare hospice coverage, the Department of Justice says in a release. Qui tam relators are entitled to between 15 and 25 percent of the recovery, the DOJ points out.

“Whistleblowers are critical to protecting public funds from fraud, waste, and abuse,” U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Myers says in the release. The “settlement demonstrates that federal law enforcement agencies will vigorously investigate reports of false claims and seek to recover funds on behalf of the public,” Myers vows.