People line up to enter CityMD, a health clinic offering testing for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the Upper West Side, on December 19, 2021, as the Omicron coronavirus variant spreads in Manhattan, New York City, USA, continues to spread.
Andrew Kelly | Reuters
WalgreensGovernment-backed CityMD will pay $12.04 million to resolve Covid fraud allegations brought by the Justice Department, the department announced Friday.
From February 2020 to April 2022, CityMD, which operates over 100 emergency outpatient practices in New York and New Jersey, allegedly received fraudulent government reimbursements for Covid testing by submitting false claims to a Covid program designed specifically for uninsured patients is determined even if your patients had health insurance.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey made the allegations under the False Claims Act, a law that incentivizes whistleblowers to file lawsuits related to potential fraud by paying them a portion of the government’s profits in successful cases becomes.
“Uninsured Americans who were at risk from COVID-19 were covered through emergency funding programs that provided them with the tests, vaccines and treatments they needed,” U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said in a statement Friday . “We cannot and will not tolerate the alleged misuse of these funds.”
Stephen Kitzinger, a CityMD patient, initially alleged the fraud in 2020. As a reward for alerting the government to the case, Kitzinger will receive over $2 million of the settlement.
Kitzinger’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.
CityMD cooperated with the government’s investigation and hired a third-party company to help the government determine how much was lost in connection with the alleged fraud, the DOJ said.
CityMD said it denies the allegations but decided to settle to avoid the costs of a protracted legal battle.
“The recent settlement does not constitute a finding of liability or an admission of wrongdoing, and CityMD denies the allegations. However, we have settled this matter to avoid the costs and burdens of a protracted legal battle,” a CityMD spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC on Saturday. “CityMD is proud of the healthcare services we have provided patients during the pandemic.”
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2024-06-08 18:24:47
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