Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge is suing a Little Rock home health-care provider over accusations the company has overbilled Medicaid by about $480,000.
Step by Step Senior Care Inc. and its operators, Breon Harmon and Clarise Tatum, together should be ordered to make full restitution plus pay fines and damages for a total of $33.6 million, according to the lawsuit filed Monday in Pulaski County Circuit Court on Monday.
A six-month investigation last year by the state Office of the Medicaid Inspector General, acting on a consumer complaint about being billed for services that weren't performed, reviewed 9 1/2 months of client medical records and discovered the Geyer Springs Road business's questionable billing practices, according to the complaint before Judge Alice Gray.
The lawsuit, filed by Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeanette Hamilton on Rutledge's behalf, accuses the company of violating the Arkansas Medicaid Fraud False Claims Act and breach of its provider contract with the state of Arkansas.
The suit states that under the Medicaid Fraud act, the state is owed full restitution of $479,577, plus three times that amount in damages, $1,438,731, as well as fines of $31.64 million, based on the maximum $10,000 penalty for each of the 3,164 violations documented by the inspector general probe.
The company should also be forced to reimburse the attorney general for her expenses in bringing the lawsuit, the 10-page filing states.
Step by Step joined the Medicaid personal care program in a March 2009 contract, the lawsuit states. As company shareholders and operators of the company, Harmon and Tatum should share responsibility with the company, according to the suit.
Metro on 06/13/2015