MILWAUKEE: Extendicare Health Services Inc. has agreed to pay $38 million to the U.S. Government and eight U.S.A. states to settle allegations that it billed Medicare and Medicaid for substandard nursing care and unnecessary rehabilitation therapy.
The settlement is the largest paid by a nursing home chain to the government over failure to provide care, says the U.S. Department of Justice.
Extendicare, which operates more than 140 facilities in 11 states, denied any wrongdoing. Its parent company, Extendicare Inc., is Canadian and the U.S. head office is in Milwaukee.
A total of $28 million of the settlement will cover claims that Extendicare billed Medicare and Medicaid for substandard services from 2007 to 2013. Another $10 million will cover claims that the company billed them for unnecessary rehabilitation therapy through its subsidiary Progressive Step Corp.
Under the settlement, Extendicare will also have to maintain an internal audit program company-wide on quality of care, submit to annual independent reviews and retain an independent monitor chosen by the Department of Health and Human Services…