LEXINGTON, KY - The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Kentucky, the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS-OIG) and the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office jointly announced today that a chiropractic clinic in Williamsburg, Ky., has agreed to pay the U.S. Government hundreds of thousands of dollars to settle claims that the clinic improperly billed Medicare and Medicaid.
The owners of Ho Medical Clinic, Kenneth Ho and Ana Moreno agreed to pay the U.S. Government $656,000. According to the settlement agreement, the clinic improperly billed the government programs for diagnostic and physical therapy services from February of 2003 through February 2009.
A former Ho Medical employee sued the company using the qui tam provision of the False Claims Act, informally known as “whistleblowing.” The False Claims Act is a federal law that allows individuals to file lawsuits against anyone who defrauds U.S. Government programs. If the U.S. receives money as a result of the whistleblower’s lawsuit then the plaintiff(s) (the whistleblower) may receive a portion of the recovered money. In this case, the plaintiff will receive $131,000 of the recovered money and an additional $11,400 from Ho and Moreno representing attorney fees. The other $525,000 of the settlement money will be sent back to the Medicare and Medicaid trust fund.
The investigation was conducted by the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office, the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Sparks handled the litigation on behalf of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
