The Department of Justice was able to extract more than $2.5 billion from healthcare providers in fiscal year 2018, the agency touted in a December announcement.
The drug and medical device industries accounted for the largest portion of false claims determinations, the DOJ noted. Those included Amerisourcebergen Corp. and its subsidiaries paying $625 million to resolve allegations that they circumvented safeguards when repackaging certain pharmaceuticals.
But skilled nursing and other providers weren’t immune from government oversight. Southern SNF Management Inc. and affiliates, for instance, were ordered in July to pay $10 million for delivering “medically unreasonable and unnecessary therapy.” Hospice provider Caris Healthcare also paid $8.5 million to settle allegations that it provided services to patients in SNFs who weren’t actually dying. And in March, four SNFs, plus two financial consultants, were required to pay $6 million for the systematic false reporting of the amount of skilled therapy delivered.
This is the ninth consecutive year in a row that the DOJ’s civil healthcare fraud settlements and judgments have landed north of $2 billion.
