Pennsylvania Nursing Home Chain To Pay $15.5M Penalty

Pennsylvania Nursing Home Chain To Pay $15.5M Penalty

Introduction

United States Attorney announced that Guardian Elder Care Holdings, Inc. and its related companies have to pay $15,466,278 as a settlement for the unnecessary rehabilitation therapy to patients for meeting the financial targets rather than clinical needs.

The whistleblowers alleged Guardian Elder Care that their main focus is always on making a profit rather than focusing on clinical need, as the rehabilitation therapists were regularly pressured to achieve the financial targets over clinical need. They informed that the patients were unnecessarily forced to undergo rehabilitation therapy even if it is not needed.

The settlement will help in resolving allegations of the whistleblower complaint filed by former employers of Guardian Elder Care in federal court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act.

Both former employees will share approximately $2.8 million of the recovery between them. The settlement agreement resolves the allegations arising from Guardian Elder Care’s facilities management practices from January 2011 through December 2017.

Rehabilitation therapists were pressured by Brockway, Pennsylvania-based Guardian, and its related companies for financial reasons to provide services to some dementia patients and those dying and receiving hospice care even though they did not want or need the “intensive” treatment, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

During the government’s investigation, Guardian also revealed it employed two people who were excluded from working in federal health care programs, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. The settlement includes the company “inappropriately” getting paid for services provided by those two people, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain stated in a news release that, “Too much rehabilitation therapy can harm patients, just like giving them too many pills or too much medicine,”. Furthermore, it also harms taxpayers who foot the bill for unnecessary treatment. The attorney also stated that they commend Guardian Elder Care for telling them about its employment of the excluded providers. It is in their best interest for companies to make voluntary disclosures and emphasize compliance going forward.