The U.S. Department of Justice has joined in on a whistleblower suit against McKesson Corp. and nursing home operator Golden Living filed by a Mississippi durable medical equipment supplier. The suit alleges that the two companies set up a kickback scheme using a non-existent supplier of DME to defraud Medicare.
According to the complaint filed by the DoJ, McKesson subsidiary McKesson Medical-Surgical MediNet put agreements in place that guaranteed that its products would be used by facilities run by Golden Living, formerly known as Beverly Enterprises. As part of the scheme, a DME supplier set up as a Golden Living Affiliate was actually managed by the McKesson subsidiary. By setting up the subsidiary, Golden Living was able to keep millions of dollars in kickbacks, the government charges. The original claims were made in 2004 by Thomas Jamison, owner of Mississippi Medical in Jackson.
McKesson, which has been cooperating in the investigation since at least 2005, says the suit is without merit.
To learn more about the case:
- read this Modern Healthcare piece (reg. req.)
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