Louisville, Ky.-based Heuser Health has agreed to pay $2.6 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by overbilling Medicare and Tricare for skin substitute products, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Kentucky said in a Sept. 2 news release.
The settlement is part of “Operation Skin Scam,” a broader Justice Department initiative targeting fraud involving skin substitutes, bioengineered or tissue-derived materials used to treat chronic and acute wounds.
Federal rules require providers to bill skin substitutes at their actual invoice price. The government alleged that Heuser Health, an at-home wound care provider, submitted claims using invoice amounts higher than what it had actually paid for the products, inflating its Medicare and Tricare reimbursements.
The claims are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability, according to the release.
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