LOS ANGELES
The federal government and the State of California have reached a $7 million civil settlement with Monrovia-based ReNew Health Group LLC, ReNew Health Consulting Services LLC, and two corporate executives for knowingly submitting false Medicare Part A claims for nursing home residents.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, to conserve hospital beds, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services waived the requirement that a person must have had a hospital stay of at least three days (signaling an acute illness or injury) before reimbursing for skilled care in a nursing home.
The United States and the State of California alleged that the defendants knowingly misused this waiver by routinely submitting claims for nursing home residents when they did not have COVID-19 or any other acute illness or injury but merely had been near other people who had COVID-19.
Under the settlement, the defendants will pay $6.8 million to the United States and $242,273 to the State of California, plus interest.
The claims settled by the United States and the State of California are allegations only; liability was not determined, according to authorities.
“The Department of Justice is committed to protecting the integrity of taxpayer-funded programs,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division. “We will hold accountable those who sought to defraud such programs during the COVID-19 pandemic, including those who knowingly misused emergency waivers for personal gain.”
This investigation was prompted by a lawsuit filed under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act, which permits private parties to sue on behalf of the government to redress false claims for government funds and to receive a share of any recovery.
In this case, the settlement agreement allows the whistleblower, Bay Area Whistleblower Partners, to receive $1 million plus interest as its share of the settlement.