OIG Enters Into $376,000 Civil Monetary Penalty Settlement With Nursing and Rehabilitative Care Entity

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of Health & Human Services today entered into a Civil Monetary Penalty (CMP) settlement agreement with American Senior Communities, LLC (ASC), a nursing and rehabilitative care entity based in Indianapolis, Indiana.

OIG alleged that ASC employed seven individuals who ASC knew or should have known were excluded from participation in Federal health care programs. These employees furnished items and services for which ASC was paid by Federal health care programs. Therefore, ASC was subject to CMP liability. To resolve the allegations, ASC will pay $376,432.

“Providers self-disclosing such violations will ultimately pay lower settlement amounts,” said Lewis Morris, Chief Counsel to the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. “But in cases initiated by the government -- such as this one -- providers will, as a matter of course, be required to pay more to resolve the matter.”

“This case illustrates yet again that OIG will pursue CMPs when providers have employed an excluded person for the furnishing of items or services paid for by Federal health care programs,” Morris noted. This matter was referred to the OIG for investigation by the Indiana Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU).

ASC certified that it now has in place policies and procedures to prevent the hiring or contracting with any excluded individual or entity. In resolving this matter through a settlement agreement, ASC denied any liability.

[NOTE TO EDITORS/REPORTERS: You may request a copy of the settlement agreement through the OIG Freedom of Information Act Office at: http://www.oig.hhs.gov/foia/submit.asp]