Alabama-based Encompass Health Corporation (now HealthSouth Corp.) has agreed to pay $48 million to settle Medicare fraud allegations. According to prosecutors, Encompass’s Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities (IRFs) falsified “disuse myopathy” diagnostics in order to maintain their standing as high-reimbursement Medicare-approved IRFs.
The alleged fraud was brought forward in three separate whistleblower lawsuits, later joined by the Department of Justice. According to the allegations, Encompass IRFs systematically admitted patients who were “too sick or disabled to participate in or benefit from intensive inpatient therapy.”
According to U.S. Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez (Florida, Middle District), “This important civil settlement concludes a lengthy, comprehensive investigation that brought to light a nationwide scheme that the government contends was intended to defraud our fragile public health programs.”