PRESS RELEASE
September 6, 2011
LEXINGTON — United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, Kerry B. Harvey, announced today that a civil complaint has been filed against Nurses’ Registry in Lexington which adds new allegations regarding how the company defrauded Medicare.
On Friday afternoon, the Department of Justice filed an amended complaint in a pending civil action filed by whistle blowers Alicia Robinson-Hill and David A. Price. The new complaint adds allegations that Nurses’ Registry and Home Health Corporation, its owner, Lennie G. House, and its corporate secretary and board director, Vicki S. House ( wife of Lennie) provided cash and other inducements, including tickets to concerts and University of Kentucky basketball games, to physicians or their staff in an attempt to influence them to refer their patients to Nurses’ Registry. Federal law prohibited Nurses’ Registry from submitting claims to Medicare that resulted from these kickbacks, and yet the company proceeded to do so.
The new complaint expands upon allegations in the whistleblowers’ complaint that Nurses’ Registry submitted false claims to Medicare for reimbursement for home health services. The complaint alleges that those services did not qualify for reimbursement under Medicare rules and that Nurses’ Registry falsified medical records in order to make it appear as if the services were payable. Nurses’ Registry also made false statements about the condition of their patients and the services they received, in order to obtain higher and undeserved reimbursement amounts.
Among other things, the complaint asserts that these actions violated the Federal False Claims Act. If the United States proves a False Claims Act violation, the defendants are liable for three times the amount of the damages sustained by the United States as a result of the defendants’ alleged fraud, plus penalties of $5,500 to $11,000 per false claim.
On July 22 of this year, the Department of Justice took over the lawsuit, which was filed against Nurses’ Registry by two former employees. The Department of Justice’s complaint adds Lennie House and Vicki House as defendants and represents the government’s allegations in this action.
This litigation is being handled jointly by the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. and by the United States Attorney’s Office in Lexington.