Nurses’ Registry, Medicare Fraud, Kentucky 2008

Nurses’ Registry Embroiled in Medicare Fraud Scandal

The U.S. government has intervened in a lawsuit against Nurses’ Registry and Home Health Corporation in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, alleging that the company made false claims to Medicare for medically unnecessary home health services.

According to the complaint, Nurses’ Registry, a Lexington, Ky., company, exaggerated the medical conditions and needs of its patients for home health care services in order to qualify for and artificially increase its claims to Medicare.

The company, which provides a wide range of home health care services including skilled nursing, physical and occupational therapies, in-home IV therapy, homemaker aid, and private duty, is accused of misstating the conditions of its patients for financial gain.

The lawsuit was filed under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the False Claims Act, which permit private parties to sue on behalf of the United States and share in any recovery.

The government has asked the court for 45 days to file its own complaint stating the United States’ allegations.

“Home health care providers furnish essential services to some of our most vulnerable citizens,” said Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “Those who misstate the conditions of their patients for their own financial gain erode the integrity of the health care system, and they do it at taxpayers’ expense.”

The intervention decision is part of the government’s emphasis on combating health care fraud and another step for the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) initiative, which was announced by Attorney General Eric Holder and Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services in May 2009.

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