Dialysis Center rips off Medicare: Former execs from RCG are 'whistleblowers'

[Zach]

http://www.nephronline.com/article.asp?IndexID=221

Former execs identified in RCG 'whistleblower' suit

Nephrology News & Isues
Volume , Issue  - 9 2009

by: Mark E. Neumann

A False Claims Act complaint, or "whistleblower" claim, filed in federal court last month identified a former Renal Care Group controller and medical director charging that the dialysis provider employees defrauded Medicare of millions of dollars over a 10-year period.

According to plaintiffs Julie Williams and nephrologist John Martinez, both who left RCG in 2002, RCG paid doctors kickbacks to use more expensive drugs, denied patients needed antibiotics, and overcharged for home dialysis equipment and supplies. Williams was controller and administrator for the company East Texas market, and Martinez began as an independent contractor and then worked as RCG's medical director.

The suit, originally filed in St. Louis in 2005, accuses RCG of creating a subsidiary, RCG Supply, to act as a billing company to allow it to overcharge Medicare for home dialysis equipment and supplies. But federal law prohibits dialysis facilities from billing and supplying home dialysis equipment and supplies to Medicare patients. RCG Supply provided home patients with supplies directly through its facilities, not a third-party supplier, according to the complaint. Martinez and Williams say the company did not, as required, maintain and repair equipment, have an inventory, have a contract with nearby dialysis centers to provide patients with assistance, or pass on the savings it made by buying equipment in bulk.

Renal Care also took undisclosed rebates and bribes from drug companies while charging Medicare full prices, the complaint says. Both Amgen and Abbott Laboratories are named in the suit for aggressively pushing rebates toward RCG doctors so the chain would buy greater supplies of drugs. "RCG waged an aggressive campaign to encourage physicians to prescribe Zemplar," the complaint says.

Fresenius Medical Care bought RCG in 2006 for $3.5 billion. The plaintiffs, on their own behalf and for the U.S., are seeking $10,000 per civil violation, and up to 25% of the settlement or recovery. They are represented by Maurice Graham of Gray, Ritter & Graham in St. Louis.

[Zach]

 

For Hurlock.

[BigSky]

When any person or company deliberately time and again rips off the government the should be put on trial with the penalty of conviction being life in prison doing hard time.


Stuff like this and $4000 dollar hammers and toilet seats is absurd.

[Rerun]

 

[Stacy Without An E]

Since Medicare seems to be becoming less manageable, I wouldn't be surprised if you see more stories like this popping up.