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The Downgrade: A Red Flag for Patient Safety The Tennessean reported recently that two Ascension hospitals in Nashville (Saint Thomas Midtown and Saint Thomas West) were downgraded to a “C” rating by Leapfrog, a prominent hospital safety group. At Price Armstrong, we are deeply committed to combating fraud in compromised healthcare, and encourages whistleblowers to

False Claims Act Cases: How Qui Tam Plaintiffs Can Fight Laboratory Medicare Fraud Medicare fraud is a serious issue that affects millions of Americans every year. Unfortunately, laboratory Medicare fraud is one of the most common types of fraud and appears to be on the rise with the increased number of testing facilities and demand

Medicare fraud is a serious and growing problem that has led to the government losing billions of dollars every year, and whistleblowers are essential in the fight against it. Unbundling fraud is one of the most common types of Medicare fraud and whistleblowers can help to stop it. In this blog post, we’ll look at

The Anti–Kickback Statute and the Stark Law are two important pieces of legislation that are designed to protect patients from fraudulent medical practices and protect taxpayer dollars from being wasted on unnecessary medical care. While these two laws have similar goals, they are actually quite distinct and have different implications for medicare fraud enforcement and the

As the cost of healthcare continues to rise, the government is taking a closer look at pharmaceutical companies that are engaging in Medicare fraud. Pharmaceutical Medicare fraud occurs when a pharmaceutical company or its representatives attempt to defraud the government by overcharging for drugs, upcoding, or submitting false claims. Pharmaceutical companies are particularly vulnerable to misuse of Medicare funds or false claims

Not all patients who are in the ER are admitted, and it is important that those that require in-patient levels of care are treated properly in the ER setting, but recent studies have shown that some for-profit hospital chains enact practices whereby they use quotas or incentives to fraudulently admit patients for inpatient care where

If the past year is any indication, companies and practitioners involved in medical testing are facing increasing scrutiny under the False Claims Act. We believe that recent trends show just how vital whistleblowers will be to addressing medical testing fraud in the near future.

Not only has the use of telemedicine risen to unprecedented levels during the Covid-19 pandemic, but the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) decided to relax Medicare coverage rules regarding telemedicine last year. As a result, telemedicine represents a relatively uncharted frontier in the health care industry, offering hopes of increased access and care

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) beneficiaries using telemedicine skyrocketed by 13,000%, according to CMS administrator Seema Verma. In fact, during a single three-month span in 2020, over 9 million Medicare FFS beneficiaries utilized some form of telehealth services. While the opportunity for increased medical access afforded by telemedicine is great,

Medicare fraud is as prevalent as ever, with billions of taxpayer dollars lost each year. However, recent developments show that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has renewed its emphasis on aggressively pursuing healthcare fraud through the False Claims Act (FCA) and recovering tens of millions of dollars in settlements for whistleblowers. Bayada Settles FCA Lawsuit