Hellacious Health Care Fraud of the Week (I)

As with banks and bank robbers, health care is where the money is. And for some so-called health care providers, the temptation to rob, steal, and cheat is apparently irresistable. Starting today I will highlight some of the more audacious schemes drawn from the week's health fraud indictments, settlements, and verdicts.

We begin this series with the settlement of a civil fraud case in the Southern District of New York. A Bronx nursing home allegedly made cash payments to a hospital supervisor in return for patient referrals. Okay: big yawn. But the second fraud scheme is the frosting with sprinkles on top of the boring cake. The nursing home allegedly switched residents out of the lower-paying Medicare Advantage plan and into the relatively higher-paying Original Medicare plan without the consent of their residents. The parties paid $3.46 million to the United States to settle the claims.