The U.S. Justice Department says it needs another three weeks to wrap up a settlement in its lawsuit against Cleveland-based Life Care Centers of America, the nation's largest private nursing home company, for allegedly over-billing the government millions of dollars for Medicare and TRICARE reimbursements.
Lawyers for the department have asked U.S. District Court Judge Harry "Sandy" Mattice to give them until Oct. 31 to wrap up the agreement in the long-running legal action.
In June, the Justice Department told the court that they had reached an agreement to settle the case, but needed another 90 days to work out the details.
In the latest filing, principal deputy assistant attorney general Benjamin Mizer told the judge that "the parties have fully negotiated the settlement agreement that will resolve this action."
But they are still working on the language of what is known as a corporate integrity agreement, Mizer said.
In such an agreement, a company spells out how it is going to assure the government that it will not violate the law again. That might include hiring a top official to monitor company activities, establishing a mandatory employee training program, setting up a way for employees to complain anonymously, or agreeing to some outside monitoring of their activities.
The Justice Department said it had also worked out a settlement in a separate legal action against Life Care's owner, Forrest Preston. The government has argued that Preston was aware of his employees' actions and benefited from them.
Medicare provides health care coverage to those 65 and older, while TRICARE provides civilian health benefits for U.S military personnel, including retirees and their dependents.
Life Care owns some 200 skilled nursing, rehabilitation, Alzheimer's, and senior living campuses in 28 states - 20 of them in Tennessee, including facilities in Hixson, Red Bank, East Ridge and Ooltewah in the Chattanooga area.
Preston, 83, the company's sole owner, is worth nearly $2 billion, according to Forbes magazine, making him one of the wealthiest individuals in East Tennessee.
The government claims that Life Care's top officials encouraged employees to provide therapy to patients who did not need it, and to keep them in the facility as long as possible, even if their therapists recommended otherwise.
In 2008, Life Care billed almost 68 percent of its Medicare rehabilitation days at the most expensive level, while the national average hovered around 35 percent, government lawyers alleged.
Between January 2010 and February 2016, Medicare paid Life Care more than $4.2 billion, according to the government's complaint.
Contact staff writer Steve Johnson at 423-757-6673, sjohnson@timesfreepress.com, on Twitter @stevejohnsonTFP, and on Facebook, www.facebook.com/noogahealth.