Oxygen equipment provider Lincare pays $5.25M to settle Medicare Advantage fraud suit

One of the country’s largest suppliers of oxygen and respiratory equipment has agreed to pay $5.25 million to settle allegations that it violated anti-kickback laws by reducing copayments for certain Medicare Advantage members.

Lincare has also entered into a corporate integrity agreement with the Office of Inspector General, the Department of Justice announced last week.

The settlement resolves allegations filed by former billing supervisor Brian Thomas, who worked for nearly a decade at the Florida-based company. In his 2015 complaint, which was later joined by federal prosecutors, Thomas claimed Lincare waived copays for Humana’s Medicare Advantage members beginning in December 2011 after the insurer contracted with Apria Healthcare to be an exclusive in-network provider of medical equipment.

In his complaint, Thomas said Lincare matched network benefits by reducing copays from Humana beneficiaries from 30% to 13% to align with copays from Apria. Humana was left paying for a higher charge using government funds.

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Lincare was purchased by The Linde Group, a German industrial gas company, for $3.8 billion in 2012. The government alleged Lincare continued the scheme through 2017.

It’s the second major settlement for Lincare, which operates about 1,000 locations across the country. In May, the company paid $875,000 to settle a class action lawsuit from employers who had their information stolen during a data breach.