Fraudulent Therapy

As discussed before, the real drivers of healthcare costs are not lawsuits, which studies by Johns Hopkins Medicine found are less than 1% of healthcare costs. The big costs are a result of fraud.  Kindred Healthcare, a large for profit chain of nursing homes, will pay $125 million to settle allegations that it billed Medicare for therapy that was either unnecessary or not provided.

RehabCare, now part of Kindred Healthcare based in Louisville, Ky., will pay $125 million to settle allegations it routinely billed for therapy that was either not necessary, or that it did not provide, according to a statement issued by Ortiz.

The office of US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz announced the settlements, ending a whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2011 by two former employees at two facilities in Haverhill.  The case was brought forward by two whistleblowers – employees of Kindred who knew that what their company was doing was not right.  The employees had “first-hand knowledge of the company’s wrongdoings” and “helped the federal government recover millions of dollars in fraudulent payments to RehabCare.”