Hebrew Homes Health Network to Pay $17M for False Medicare Claims; Whistleblower to Get $4.25M
Florida-based Hebrew Homes Health Network and its former president and executive director William Zubkoff have agreed to pay $17 million to resolve allegations that they knowingly submitted or caused the submission of false claims to Medicare, the U.S. Department of Justice announced yesterday. Hebrew Homes provided skilled nursing services at seven rehabilitation and skilled nursing facilities in Miami-Dade County, Florida.
Hebrew Homes allegedly operated a sophisticated kickback scheme in which they hired numerous physicians ostensibly as medical directors pursuant to contracts that specified numerous job duties and hourly requirements. The various facilities had several such medical directors under contract at any given time, paying each several thousand dollars monthly. The United States alleged that in reality these were ghost positions, and that most of the medical directors were required to perform few, if any, of their contracted job duties. Instead, they were allegedly paid for their patient referrals to the Hebrew Homes facilities, which increased exponentially once the medical directors were put on the payroll.
The Anti-Kickback Statute is intended to ensure that a physician’s medical judgment is not compromised by improper financial incentives. The Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits offering, paying, soliciting or receiving remuneration to induce referrals of items or services covered by federal health care programs, including Medicare.
As part of the settlement, Mr. Zubkoff has agreed to resign as Hebrew Homes’ Executive Director and to no longer be an employee of the company. Also, as part of the settlement announced today, Hebrew Homes has entered into a five-year corporate integrity agreement with HHS-OIG, and has agreed to change its policies on hiring and maintaining medical directors.
The settlement announced today resolves allegations made in a lawsuit filed by Stephen Beaujon, a former CFO of Hebrew Homes, under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the False Claims Act, which permit private individuals to sue on behalf of the government for false claims and to share in any recovery. Mr. Beaujon will receive $4.25 million.
The Chanler Group, in association with the Hirst Law Group, represents whistleblowers who take action under the False Claims Act to report fraud committed against the federal and state governments. We have years of experience representing whistleblower clients who expose every kind of fraud against the government, including health care fraud, contract fraud, and tax fraud. Read more about our expertise in False Claims Act cases and how you can take action.