SAN FRANCISCO– LAWFUEL – Law News Network – United States Attorney Kevin V. Ryan announced today that Beverly Enterprises, Inc. agreed to pay $20 million to settle allegations that its former wholly owned subsidiary, MK Medical, violated the civil False Claims Act.
According to the settlement agreement, the United States alleges that MK Medical submitted false claims for payment to the Medicare and Medi-Cal programs from 1998 until 2002, while Beverly owned the company. MK Medical, a wholesaler of durable medical equipment (DME) which is now defunct, billed Medicare and Medi-Cal for DME provided to the programs’ beneficiaries without obtaining the proper documentation. For example, MK Medical was required to obtain a certificate of medical necessity (CMN) signed by a physician before providing most types of DME to Medicare and Medi-Cal beneficiaries. The United States alleges that, in numerous instances, the CMNs in MK Medical’s files were incomplete, had been altered, or had been filled in by MK Medical personnel in areas reserved for physicians.
Beverly has agreed to settle these allegations by paying $14,487,278 to the United States and $5,512,722 to the State of California. No action has been filed in court. The Medicare program is funded by the federal government, while the Medi-Cal program is jointly funded by the federal government and California.
“Health care fraud is one of the priorities of this office,” said Kevin V. Ryan, United States Attorney for the Northern District of California. “We are committed to pursuing allegations of fraud against federal health care programs, and to safeguarding federal funds against false claims.”
Sara Winslow is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who handled the settlement, together with Department of Justice Civil Division Trial Attorney Laurie Oberembt, and with the assistance of Financial Fraud Investigator Wayne Yee. This settlement is the result of an investigation by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Further Information:
A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.
Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
Judges’ calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court’s website at www.cand.uscourts.gov.
All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office should be directed to Luke Macaulay at (415) 436-6757 or by email at Luke.Macaulay@usdoj.gov.
