The Office of Inspector General (OIG) reported today that Intrepid U.S.A. Inc., and various wholly-owned subsidiaries (Intrepid) have agreed to pay $3,850,000 to resolve allegations that Intrepid violated the False Claims Act between 2016 and 2021.
Intrepid was charged with knowingly submitting claims to Medicare for home-health services for who did not qualify or were not properly certified as eligible for the Medicare home-health benefit, where services provided were not reasonable or medically necessary, where the services were provided by untrained staff, or where services were not performed. In addition, Intrepid knowingly submitted claims to Medicare for patients who did not qualify for the hospice benefit.
“Medicare’s hospice and home healthcare benefits provide critical services to vulnerable patient populations across the country,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “This settlement reflects our commitment to ensuring that these benefits are used to care for those who need them and not just to enrich those who seek to provide them.”
Special Agent in Charge Tamala E. Miles of the Department of Health and Human Services OIG (HHS-OIG) said “Home health is designed to increase health care access for our most vulnerable populations with mobility limitations, while hospice care aims to provide comfort and relief for the terminally ill. Exploiting these systems for financial gain is intolerable." She added “Working with our law enforcement partners, we will continue to pursue health care providers who jeopardize the integrity of these services by prioritizing profit over medically necessary palliative care.”
Stay well.
Stay well.
Beth