In a health care fraud lawsuit, five hospice companies have agreed to pay the government over $12 million in a recent whistleblower settlement. These companies have been accused of paying kickbacks in order to get increased patient referrals.

Whistleblowers have claimed that several hospice companies, including Curo Health Services LLC, Hospice Plus, Goodwin Hospice Plus, Phoenix Hospice Plus and Hospice Plus LP submitted false claims to both Texas Medicaid and Medicare.

One of these alleged schemes included a physician house call service, American Physician Housecalls, that received benefits including sham loans, free equity interest in another entity, stock dividends and free rental space from the hospice providers.

The hospice companies in this health care fraud lawsuit allegedly received patient referrals as “payment” for the kickbacks they provided to the house call service.

Curo Health purchased Hospice Plus, Goodwin Hospice and Phoenix Hospice in September 2010 and brought them underneath the umbrella of the Hospice Plus brand. This brand operates, for the most part, in Dallas, Texas and surrounding communities.

The $12.2 million health care fraud lawsuitsettlement answers the claims of multiple whistleblowers in a couple different consolidated lawsuits. Even though Curo has agreed to pay the health care fraud lawsuit settlement, it has not admitted any wrongdoing.

Additionally, the Department of Justice has stepped in to prosecute two former executives of the hospice companies specifically. Dr. Bryan White and Suresh Kumar have been singled out by the Department of Justice as being behind the schemes which included the illegal payment of kickbacks to the house call company.

From the Northern District of Texas, United States Attorney John Parker, in a recent news release noted that these types of practices “unjustly drive up the cost of healthcare,” according to Law360.

He went on to say that “Any health care provider who seeks to profit illegally at the expense of federal beneficiaries and taxpayers will face consequences.”

Both of these schemes condemned in this health care fraud lawsuit allegedly fly in the face of the False Claims Act. This law allows for a whistleblower or a person who has knowledge of fraud against the government to file a lawsuit. This person is also protected from retaliation from his or her current or former employer under the False Claims Act.

The whistleblowers in this health care fraud lawsuit allege that the hospice companies paid illegal kickbacks to American Physician Housecalls from 2007 until 2012 in one of the schemes.

In a different scheme, kickbacks including cash, gift cards, and other items, were allegedly paid to doctors, nurses, hospitals and long-term care facilities in exchange for patient referrals.