DOJ joins whistle-blower case against Fla. hospice

The Department of Justice is joining a case against a hospice provider in Orlando accused by a former executive of admitting Medicare patients who did not qualify for care to collect the payments. Meanwhile, state officials announce Medicaid fraud settlements, with GlaxoSmithKline in North Carolina, and Planned Parenthood in Illinois.

Modern Healthcare: Feds Join Whistle-Blower Case Against Fla. Hospice Provider
The U.S. Justice Department has joined a whistle-blower lawsuit against a hospice provider in the Orlando, Fla., area that stands accused by a former employee of admitting Medicare patients who did not qualify for palliative care because they were not dying. The lawsuit, filed in 2011 by former Vice President of Finance Douglas Stone, says Hospice of the Comforter executives verbally told employees to admit Medicare beneficiaries for hospice care even though there had not been a medical determination that they would be eligible (Carlson, 9/6).

The Associated Press: NC Recovers $31.8 Million As Part Of Largest Health Care Fraud Settlement In US History
North Carolina's attorney general says the state has recovered nearly $32 million from drug maker GlaxoSmithKline as part of the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history. The settlement with GlaxoSmithKline is the latest recovery made by Attorney General Roy Cooper's Medicaid Investigations Division. The division has recouped nearly $500 million over the past decade (9/6).

Crain's Chicago Business: Planned Parenthood Settles With Illinois On Medicaid Payments
Planned Parenthood of Illinois has agreed to pay the state $367,000 to settle a dispute over alleged overbilling of the Medicaid program by the not-for-profit's medical director. Dr. Caroline Hoke, an obstetrician-gynecologist and the organization's medical director since 2007, had been under threat of termination from the state Medicaid program since 2010, when the inspector general of the Department of Healthcare and Family Services sought to recover allegedly improper payments (Wang, 9/6).