Murphy Anderson Represents Nurse Whistleblowers in Hospice Fraud FCA settlement
Hospice provider Gentiva (formerly Kindred at Home) agreed to pay over $19.4 million to settle allegations of billing government programs for ineligible patients. The False Claims Act settlement with the United States Government resolves claims by over 20 whistleblowers, including Jason Medved and Anthony Donnadio, who are Ohio nurses represented by The Employment Law Group and Murphy Anderson PLLC. About $2.13 million of the settlement was attributed to Mr. Medved and Mr. Donnadio’s claims, which alleged fraud at a Youngstown, Ohio hospice operated by Gentiva subsidiary SouthernCare Hospice Services.
Hospices may only seek payment from Medicare for patients that doctors expect to die within six months. The whistleblowers alleged that the Gentiva hospices admitted patients who did not qualify for hospice care, including patients who lacked symptoms for their claimed diagnoses. The lawsuits alleged that several patients left the hospices after learning that their conditions were not fatal.
Admitting ineligible patients to hospice care can harm patients because hospice care focuses on end-of-life care and comfort and does not treat underlying conditions or provide curative care. Mr. Medved and Mr. Donnadio alleged dozens of patients were inappropriately admitted or kept in hospice care, and at least one patient whose diagnosis was switched from one fatal disease, chronic kidney disease, to a completely different fatal disease, late-stage Alzheimer’s disease, by a staff doctor.
Gentiva agreed to settle nine separate related False Claims Act lawsuits covering facilities in seven states. In addition to the $19.4 million paid to the federal government, Gentiva agreed to pay about $450,000 to the state of Tennessee and about $23,600 to the state of Ohio.
Mr. Medved and Mr. Donnadio were represented in the qui tam False Claims Act litigation by Janel Quinn, R. Scott Oswald, and Lydia A. Pappas of The Employment Law Group, and Ann Lugbill, Mark Hanna, and Nicolas Mendoza of Murphy Anderson