CompreCare Health, a Connecticut-based telehealth service provider, and its affiliates have agreed to pay $360,000 to settle allegations of overbilling Medicare.
CompreCare Health is accused of falsifying time records in order to submit claims to Medicare for telehealth psychotherapy sessions that did not the minimum requirements for payments, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney General’s Office. This allegedly happened between January 2017 and November 30, 2022.
CompreCare Health does work in 17 states, including Kentucky, where the settlement was made. In Kentucky, CompreCare Health operates under the name MediTelecare.
The allegations came from a whistleblower lawsuit that was filed in Bowling Green, Kentucky, according to the press release. The whistleblowers accused CompreCare Health of improperly treating nursing home residents in Kentucky, court documents reveal.
The company was accused of frequently arranging appointments between nurse practitioners and nursing home residents to provide psychotherapy treatment and manage medications, and then having an unlicensed or unqualified “Facilitator” would show up to treat these patients instead.
Sometimes, when nurse practitioners did meet with patients, they would only ask three questions: how have you been sleeping; how have you been eating; and have you been depressed? These sessions were shorter than the period of time necessary to bill Medicare, the lawsuit claims.
Finally, nurse practitioners were accused of having their Facilitator point cameras at patients at social gatherings, and then claiming that medical services were provided to each patient.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. Attorney’s Office Western District of Kentucky.
“I commend the outstanding effort of the attorneys and investigators who worked on this case on behalf of the United States,” said U.S Attorney Michael Bennett in the release. “Those who bill Medicare for timed services must do so accurately as we take these matters very seriously and will vigorously pursue claims that Medicare is being overcharged.”
CompreCare Health has been involved other lawsuits recently.
In July 2023, the company, operating as MediTelecare, filed a lawsuit against a former employee in Pennsylvania. It accused him of violating a non-competitive clause in his contract by taking a job at a competitive company less than two years after he left MediTelecare. CompreCare Health believed this threatened its “trade secrets.” The two parties came to a settlement in October 2023.
That same year, in January, a discrimination lawsuit was filed against CompreCare Health for actions taken in West Virginia. A former employee claimed that she was wrongfully terminated as a form of retaliation because she was offered a raise and negotiated for higher pay. Her supervisor claimed that she was fired for “misconduct.” The two parties reached a settlement and the case was terminated in September of that year.
The whistleblower complaint was officially settled on January 7.
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