Oxygen Plus agrees to pay $200K
By HME News Staff
Updated 9:02 AM CDT, Mon October 23, 2023
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Oxygen Plus, based in Floyd County, Kentucky, has agreed to pay $200,000 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by fraudulently billing Medicare and Medicaid for respiratory devices that patients did not need or use. The government alleged in the settlement agreement that, between January 2017 and June 2021, Oxygen Plus submitted more than 300 false claims to Medicare and Kentucky Medicaid by continuing to seek reimbursement for non-invasive ventilator rentals, even after patients no longer needed the devices or were no longer using them. Medicare and Kentucky Medicaid pay a monthly reimbursement for a patient’s rental of an NIV, but only if the device is necessary and reasonable for the patient’s treatment. The settlement resolves allegations brought in a lawsuit filed under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the False Claims Act by two former employees of Oxygen Plus.
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