TAMPA, Fla. (Legal Newsline) — The U.S. Department of Justice announced May 30 that Freedom Health Inc. and related corporate entities will pay $31,695,593 after allegations of violating the False Claims Act in connection with their Medicare Advantage plans.
“When entering into agreements with managed care providers, the government requests information from those providers to ensure that patients are afforded the appropriate level of care,” said acting assistant attorney general Chad A. Readler of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “[This] result sends a clear message to the managed care industry that the United States will hold managed care plan providers responsible when they fail to provide truthful information.”
Freedom Health purportedly engaged an illegal scheme in which it submitted or caused others to submit unsupported diagnosis codes to Medicare. This led to the company receiving inflated reimbursements between 2008 and 2013.
“Medicare Advantage plans play an increasingly important role in our nation’s health care market,” said acting U.S. attorney Stephen Muldrow. “This settlement underscores our office’s commitment to civil health care fraud enforcement.”
The related entities involves in the case are Optimum HealthCare Inc., America’s 1st Choice Holdings of Florida LLC, Liberty Acquisition Group LLC, Health Management Services of USA LLC, Global TPA LLC, America’s 1st Choice Holdings of North Carolina LLC, America’s 1st Choice Holdings of South Carolina LLC, America’s 1st Choice Insurance Company of North Carolina Inc., and America’s 1st Choice Health Plans Inc.