ORLANDO, Fla.--Rotech Healthcare has paid $2 million to settle civil charges resulting from a whistleblower complaint that it engaged in fraudulent Medicare billing for durable medical equipment.
The settlement resolves claims filed in 2004 by former Rotech executive Sheila Bell-Messier, who alleged the company suppressed disclosure of billing issues in Texas, Colorado and Louisiana in order to avoid additional penalties related to a previous civil settlement. In 2002, while in bankruptcy, Rotech settled federal civil claims related to billing issues in its Montana, Kentucky, Florida and Georgia operations.
According to the unsealed qui tam action in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Bell-Messier “shut down the billing” when she noticed that records were not in compliance with federal directives. A statement from attorneys Berg & Androphy, part of the legal team that represented Bell-Messier, said she was asked to restart billing but refused, saying she “was not going to Medicare prison for Rotech.”
Bell-Messier, of Texarkana, Texas, whose company had been purchased by Rotech in 1995, stayed on with the company and had overseen operations in 12 states.
In settling Bell-Messier’s claims, Rotech denied any wrongdoing. The federal government did not intervene in the case.
Of the total settlement, $2 million will go to the government, with Bell-Messier receiving 27 percent, or $540,000. Rotech will also pay her legal fees of $1.2 million.
