By Nate Raymond
(Reuters)
- The U.S. Justice Department for the second time in a month sued
UnitedHealth Group Inc on Tuesday, accusing the nation's largest health
insurer of obtaining over $1 billion from Medicare to which it was not
entitled.
The
complaint, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, came after the
Justice Department brought a separate but similar case against
UnitedHealth. In both cases, the government intervened in whistleblower
lawsuits against UnitedHealth.
The
latest complaint came after the Justice Department intervened in a
lawsuit brought by former UnitedHealth executive Benjamin Poehling,
whose whistleblower case was filed under seal in 2011.
UnitedHealth
had no immediate comment. It previously said it rejects the claims in
the underlying whistleblower lawsuit and would fight the claims
vigorously.
Medicare,
a government health insurance program, serves more than 50 million
Americans who are elderly or disabled. More than one-third of them are
in Medicare Advantage plans run by private insurers like UnitedHealth.
In
the lawsuit, the Justice Department alleged that UnitedHealth obtained
inflated risk adjustment payments based on untruthful and inaccurate
information about the health status of patients enrolled in its Medicare
Advantage plans.
The
lawsuit said UnitedHealth's conduct damaged the Medicare program by
over $1.14 billion from 2011 to 2014. The Justice Department said it is
seeking triple damages under the False Claims Act as well as penalties.
Poehling
filed his lawsuit under the False Claims Act, which allows
whistleblowers to sue companies on the government's behalf to recover
taxpayer money paid out based on fraudulent claims.
No comments:
Post a Comment