Life Care Centers of America agreed Monday to pay the Department of Justice $145 million to settle claims the company overcharged Medicare and TRICARE for services provided to elderly patients, but the company did not have to admit any wrongdoing.
We wonder how much it would’ve taken for an apology, too.
The Cleveland-based skilled nursing home chain may not have had to admit wrongdoing – and even denied there was any – but the federal government evidently thought there was some.
“Billing federal health care programs for medically unnecessary rehabilitation services not only undermines the viability of those programs,” said Nancy Stallard Harr, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee “it exploits our most vulnerable citizens.”
The exploitation is really at the crux of the matter, not only for Life Care but for so many other elder care facilities that seek to take advantage of patients and their families.