Crime & Safety
Rosemont Medical Company Accused Of Filing False Claims Settles For $14.7 Million
The company submitted claims to federal care programs for a higher level of heart monitoring than was medically necessary, authorities said.
ROSEMONT, IL — A heart-monitoring device company has agreed to pay nearly $15 million to resolve allegations that it submitted claims to federal care programs for a higher level of monitoring than was medically necessary, inflating reimbursement paid to the business, according to authorities.
BioTelemetry Inc., headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania, and its subsidiary, LifeWatch Services Inc., based in Rosemont, will pay more than $14.7 million after being accused of violating the False Claims Act, authorities said.
“Diagnostic companies, like other providers, are expected to bill federal healthcare programs only for medically necessary services,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton, head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Division, said in a news release. “We will hold accountable those who misuse taxpayer-funded programs for their own enrichment.”
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From July 2014 to December 2020, LifeWatch marketed its ACT-3L device to doctors as being capable of three types of heart monitoring, with telemetry providing the highest rate of reimbursement, according to the department.
LifeWatch’s online enrollment portal for the device was designed in a way that caused clinical staff to select options that would enroll patients in the most expensive service, and LifeWatch sales personnel told clinical staff to select options that resulted in telemetry enrollment, authorities said. LifeWatch disregarded the intentions of doctors who sought to order less costly services and ignored written notes included in patient enrollments about physicians’ intent to order services other than telemetry, according to the department.
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The settlement resolved claims brought under whistleblower provisions of the act by a LifeWatch customer employee, who will receive about $2.3 million, and SFP I LLC, which will get roughly $270,000, authorities said.
To report potential health care fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement, call 800-447-8477.
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