Maryland Ambulance Company To Pay $1.25M After Being Accused Of Filing False Medicare Claims
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A Maryland-based ambulance company has agreed to pay the federal government $1.25 million to settle allegations that it submitted false Medicare claims.
The federal government filed a complaint against Forest Hill-based Hart to Heart Ambulance Services late last year, alleging the company and its owners received millions of taxpayer dollars after filing Medicare claims for services that weren't medically necessary.
According to the complaint, numerous former employees reported feeling pressure from management to falsify documentation to make Medicare more likely to reimburse the company.
In the settlement, both parties resolved allegations that from January 2, 2010, to December 31, 2017, Hart to Heart knowingly submitted fraudulent claims to Medicare for non-emergency Basic Life Support ambulance transports hospital discharges that weren't medically necessary.
A former employee, Bryan Arvey, who originally filed the lawsuit in 2013 under a whistleblower provision in the False Claims Act, will receive $251,000 from the settlement.
