LEGAL NEWSLINE

NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch announced settlement agreements Tuesday with a Brooklyn-based home health agency that allegedly submitted false claims to the state Medicaid program.

The state of New York and the U.S. entered into agreements with Parkshore Home Health Care LLC, doing business as Renaissance Home Health Care Inc., to resolve allegations of sending poorly trained or untrained home health aides to care for the infirm and elderly. ttUnder the terms of the agreement, Renaissance will return $1 million to Medicaid, a program jointly funded by the federal and state governments. New York will receive a $600,000 portion of the settlement.

"This home health care agency hired workers with false training certificates, who then went out into the community and into the homes of the vulnerable and elderly." Schneiderman said. "This was preventable and our investigations show that is a recurring problem in home health care. This office will continue to recover Medicaid funds from providers who do not protect the Medicaid program."

The New York State Medicaid Program requires that home health aides complete a training program before caring for elderly patients, providing services like wound care and administering medication. Renaissance allegedly sent false claims to Medicaid by sending aides with little or no required training. The company allegedly billed Medicaid for thousands of dollars worth of services performed by unqualified aides.

The settlements resolve a lawsuit filed in 2007 under the whistleblower provisions of the New York False Claims Act.