Date: October 27, 2022
Local Florida media such as the Tampa Bay Times reported on the $7 million settlement reached between Carter Healthcare and TELG clients Sharon Mahaffey and Mark Brimer. The two home-health therapists blew the whistle on their former employer and claimed Carter Healthcare overbilled and pushed unnecessary treatment onto patients. Ms. Mahaffey and Mr. Brimer were represented by TELG principal Janel Quinn.
Quoteworthy:
“Sharon and Mark spoke out loudly against Carter’s insistence on medically unnecessary treatments, including the pointless therapies they were ordered to provide on the U.S. taxpayer’s dime. Until today, the only reward they’ve gotten for their integrity was a pair of pink slips.”
Janel Quinn
[EXCERPT]
Florida health care firm agrees to $7M settlement over Medicare claims
A 91-year-old Florida man with a shoulder injury and dementia wasn’t benefiting from repeated physical therapy sessions, the man’s therapist told his boss.
But Carter Healthcare continued sending a therapist to the man’s home and billing a federal government benefits program even though the man’s wife refused the treatment, according to a complaint filed in federal court.
In another case, Carter Healthcare fired occupational therapist Sharon Mahaffey after she refused to recommend more treatment for a patient whom she considered healed, the complaint states.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Carter Healthcare will pay $7.1 million to resolve allegations that it overbilled for home care therapy paid by Medicare and gave unneeded medical treatment to patients across Florida.
>> View full story on the Tampa Bay Times
[ADDITIONAL COVERAGE]
Government rewards two local therapists who blew the whistle on Carter Healthcare
From TCPalm (October 25, 2022)
Two therapists in Vero Beach and Melbourne who claim they were fired after blowing the whistle on their former healthcare employer will pocket a portion of a multi-million-dollar settlement announced last week by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Oklahoma City-based Carter Healthcare and two of its top officers paid more than $7 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the two whistleblowers who claimed that affiliates of the home-health provider defrauded Medicare by pushing therapy services for Florida seniors without regard to medical need, according to attorneys representing the therapists.
