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Health Care Enforcement Roundup: Increased FCA Enforcement Against EHR Companies

The federal government has offered substantial incentives to providers to adopt and use certified electronic health record (EHR) technology. As of October 2018, the federal government had paid over $38 billion in EHR incentive payments through the Promoting Interoperability Program (formerly, the Meaningful Use Program). Other federal health care program policies also encourage use of certified EHR technology through enhanced payments or avoidance of decreased reimbursement. These EHR-related payment policies, however, have triggered increased oversight and enforcement attention on EHR vendors who have allegedly misrepresented the capabilities of their EHR software and allegedly paid kickbacks to customers.

In 2017, DOJ announced a settlement with eClinicalWorks (eCW), an EHR vendor, to resolve an FCA lawsuit originally brought as a qui tam action by a whistleblower. DOJ’s complaint-in-intervention alleged that eCW made material false statements and concealed material facts about the capabilities of its software in connection with the government’s EHR certification process.[1] It also alleged that eCW paid purported kickbacks in connection with certain marketing arrangements (i.e., a referral program, site visit program, and a reference program) with influential customers to induce them to recommend eCW’s EHR software, in violation of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS).[2]

As part of the settlement, eCW agreed to pay $155 million and to enter into a novel, five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement (CIA) with the HHS OIG. Among other things, the CIA required eCW to engage an independent Software Quality Oversight Organization to assess eCW’s software quality control systems and to regularly report to OIG and eCW on its reviews and recommendations. Further, the CIA required eCW to offer free upgrades and data transfers to its current customers. This was a ground-breaking settlement that raised the question of whether this was the beginning of government and whistleblower attention on (and FCA actions against) EHR vendors. This question was seemingly answered in the affirmative when DOJ announced a second settlement with an EHR vendor in early 2019.

On February 6, 2019, EHR vendor Greenway Health LLC (Greenway) entered into a similar settlement to resolve an FCA case filed by the US Attorney’s Office in Vermont. Interestingly, a whistleblower did not initiate the Greenway case. Rather, DOJ pursued it directly. Like eCW, Greenway faced allegations that its EHR system did not function in the way it represented it during the certification process.[3] One specific allegation was that Greenway provided some customers whose EHR software was improperly calculating certain meaningful use measures (which providers are required to achieve to be eligible for incentive payments) with incorrect calculations in order to enable them to receive incentive payments.[4] According to DOJ, this allegedly caused some Greenway customers to submit false claims to HHS for payment under the Promoting Interoperability Program.

Like in the eCW case, the government complaint against Greenway also alleged that certain payments from Greenway to its customers pursuant to certain reference, referral, and site visit programs [...]

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False Claims Act Settlement with eClinicalWorks Raises Questions for Electronic Health Record Software Vendors

On May 31, 2017, the US Department of Justice announced a Settlement Agreement under which eClinicalWorks, a vendor of electronic health record software, agreed to pay $155 million and enter into a five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement to resolve allegations that it caused its customers to submit false claims for Medicare and Medicaid meaningful use payments in violation of the False Claims Act.

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OIG Reports More Than $731 Million in Inappropriate Medicare Meaningful Use Payments

The Electronic Health Records (EHR) Incentive Program run by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) garnered attention again last week following the release of a report by the Office of Inspector General of the US Department of Health and Human Services (OIG) describing inappropriate payments to physicians under the program. The report follows on the heels of a high-profile settlement under the False Claims Act between the US Department of Justice and an EHR vendor related to certified electronic health record technology (CEHRT) used in the EHR Incentive Program (which we’ve previously discussed in-depth).

The OIG reviewed payments to 100 eligible professionals (EPs) who received EHR incentive payments between May 2011 and June 2014 and identified 14 inappropriate payments. OIG extrapolated the results of the review to the 250,470 total EPs who received incentive payments during that time period and estimated that CMS made approximately $729 million in inappropriate EHR incentive payments out of a total of just over $6 billion in such payments during the review period. (more…)




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