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Forest Park Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center is located at 700 Walnut Bottom Road, Carlisle. |
The Department of Justice announced the settlement in a news release last week.
Guardian operates more than 50 nursing facilities throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.
According
to the news release, Guardian facilities allegedly billed patients at
the highest level of Medicare reimbursement from January 2011 through
December 2017. Services at that level were not medically necessary, and
were influenced by financial considerations.
“Seniors rely on the Medicare program
to provide them with appropriate care, and to ensure that they are
treated with dignity and respect,” said Assistant Attorney General Jody
Hunt of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division. “The department will
not tolerate nursing home operators that put their own economic gain
ahead of the needs of their residents, and will continue to hold
accountable those operators who bill Medicare for unnecessary
rehabilitation services.”
The
allegations were originally introduced by two former Guardian
employees, Phillipa Krause and Julie White, under the whistleblower
provisions of the False Claims Act, which allow private parties to sue
on behalf of the government for false claims and to share in any
recovery. The whistleblowers in this case will receive approximately
$2.8 million.
The settlement also resolves
allegations voluntarily disclosed by Guardian that it had employed two
people who were excluded from federal health care programs. As a result
of its employment of those two people, Guardian inappropriately received
payment for ineligible services.
Contemporaneous
with the civil settlement, Guardian agreed to enter into a chainwide
Corporate Integrity Agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services Office of Inspector General. The agreements are intended
to promote compliance and protect nursing home residents.
Full Article & Source:
Parent company of Carlisle nursing facility to pay $15.4 million to settle overbilling allegations
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