by Ben Vernia | April 12th, 2020
On April 10, the Department of Justice announced that Encore Rehabilitation Services, LLC, had agreed to settle allegations originally raised in three whistleblower suits that the company submitted false claims for rehabilitation services provided under contract at skilled nursing facilities. According to DOJ’s press release:
Encore Rehabilitation Services LLC (Encore) has agreed to pay $4.03 million to resolve allegations that Encore violated the False Claims Act by knowingly causing three Michigan skilled nursing facilities to submit false claims to Medicare for rehabilitation therapy services that were not reasonable, necessary or skilled, the Department of Justice announced today. Encore, based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, provides rehabilitation services to patients at over 600 health care facilities, including skilled nursing facilities, in over 30 states.
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This settlement resolves allegations that Encore’s policies and practices at three Michigan skilled nursing facilities resulted in the provision of unreasonable, unnecessary, or unskilled rehabilitation therapy or the recording of therapy minutes as individual therapy when concurrent or group therapy was actually provided. The settlement relates to Encore’s alleged conduct at the Autumn Woods Healthcare Facility in Warren, Michigan between Sept. 1, 2012, and July 31, 2018, the Bay Shores Senior Care and Rehab Center in Bay City, Michigan, for the period from April 1, 2013, to April 6, 2017, and MediLodge of Yale in Yale, Michigan, for the period from Oct. 1, 2010, to April 6, 2017.
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Encore has also entered into a 5-year corporate integrity agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. The amount the four whistleblowers (who brought a total of three cases) will receive has not yet been determined, the Government annouced.
