In November 2020, Doctor’s Choice Home Care, Inc., and two of its former executives, agreed to pay $5.15 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations. The allegations included paying improper financial inducements to referring physicians through sham agreements and paying bonuses to physicians’ spouses who were actually Doctor’s Choice employees.
The two former executives who have also agreed to a settlement are Timothy Beach and Stuart Christensen, the founders of the company. To resolve the above-referenced allegations, Doctor’s Choice will pay $3,856,000 and Beach and Christensen will each pay $647,000, for a total of $5.15 million.
As indicated above, this first settlement resolves allegations that Doctor’s Choice, Beach, and Christensen all violated both the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Law by entering into sham medical director agreements with physicians as a way to provide remuneration for referrals and also violated the Stark Law by providing bonuses to employees based on referrals to Doctor’s Choice by the employees’ physician spouses.
The allegations resolved in this settlement were originally brought in a lawsuit filed under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act by Corina Herbold, a former Doctor’s Choice employee. It has not yet been determined the share of the settlement that will go to Herbold for her actions in this case.
Second Settlement
Doctor’s Choice has also agreed to pay an additional $675,000 to resolve other allegations that its employees pressured clinical personnel to increase the number of home visits for Medicare patients. By doing this, they were able to avoid the Medicare Low Utilization Payment Adjustment, which would have decreased the reimbursement paid to Doctor’s Choice by Medicare. The Low Utilization Payment Adjustment is triggered when a home health patient has a treatment episode of less than five skilled service visits and results in the provider receiving a standardized per visit payment, instead of the higher payment for a full home health episode.
This case was also brought in a lawsuit under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act by three former Doctor’s Choice employees, Sara Billings, Misty Sykes, and Marina Eschoyez-Quiroga. Prior to filing the lawsuit, the three plaintiffs reported their concerns verbally and in writing to management over the course of ten months but management took no action to investigate or end the improper actions.
The three employees will jointly receive a share of roughly $145,000.
Doctor’s Choice Statement
Sandy Bell, chief executive officer of Doctor’s Choice Home Health Care released a statement about the settlement, saying, “Doctor’s Choice Home Health Care, Inc. is pleased to settle these cases and put the matters behind us so we can focus on caring for our patients and avoid costly and time-consuming litigation. The claims made in the complaints are allegations only. There has been no determination that Doctor’s Choice is liable for the alleged conduct.”