Remote cardiac monitoring company to pay $1.35 million to resolve kickback allegations
MedNet, Inc., a remote cardiac monitoring company, agreed to pay more than $1.35 million to resolve kickback and false Medicare claims allegations.
The U.S. Attorney’s office in New Jersey announced the settlement Nov. 15 and said there had been no determination of liability.
The government alleges that MedNet had agreements in which hospitals and physician clinics paid the company for event monitoring and telemetry services. Mednet, which is based in Ewing, New Jersey, then allowed the customers to bill Medicare for the services and retain the reimbursement, which was higher than MedNet’s fees.
“The government contends that MedNet entered these agreements and provided this remuneration to these customers in order to induce referrals from those customers for MedNet’s services,” the U.S. Attorney’s office wrote in a news release. “The government alleges that the remuneration MedNet provided in connection with the agreements was illegal remuneration under the Anti-Kickback Statute. As a result, MedNet caused to be submitted to Medicare false claims for cardiac monitoring services provided to patients of its customers.”
A whistleblower raised the allegations in a lawsuit. The allegations occurred from March 2006 through January 2014.
BioTelemetry acquired MedNet in February 2014 for approximately $16 million after MedNet entered into a consent agreement and admitted that it had infringed on five patents that BioTelemetry owned. BioTelemetry was formerly known as CardioNet.
Executive Editor
Tim Casey joined TriMed Media Group in 2015 as Executive Editor. For the previous four years, he worked as an editor and writer for HMP Communications, primarily focused on covering managed care issues and reporting from medical and health care conferences. He was also a staff reporter at the Sacramento Bee for more than four years covering professional, college and high school sports. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA degree from Georgetown University.