Home health director settles fraud claim for $1.1 million

Feds claim Vicki S. House, executive director of Nurses' Registry and Home Health, paid three local physicians who referred patients to Nurses' Registry.

The executive director of a Lexington, Kentucky-based home health agency has agreed to pay the U.S. government $1.1 million to settle allegations she provided unlawful compensation to physicians who referred patients to the agency.

From 2006 to 2010, Vicki S. House, secretary and executive director of Nurses’ Registry and Home Health, provided compensation to three local physicians who referred patients to Nurses’ Registry, according to the Department of Justice, Eastern District of Kentucky. Nurses’ Registry then submitted the claims to Medicare, seeking payment.

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This violated the Stark Law, prohibiting the submission of claims resulting from referrals from physicians whom the agency has paid, according to the Justice Department.

Nurses’ Registry and the estate of its former owner and Chief Executive Officer Lennie G. House are also defendants in a complaint of False Claims Act violations and are scheduled for trial in August.

If they are found liable, Nurses’ Registry and Lennie House’s Estate will be liable for three times the amount of money Medicare paid the agency for false claims, and the agency would be excluded from further participation in federal healthcare programs, according to the Department of Justice.

Twitter: @SusanMorseHFN