Monitoring Services Were Performed Overseas
On December 20, 2022, the Department of Justice announced an almost $45 million settlement with BioTelemetry, Inc. and its subsidiary CardioNet, LLC to resolve allegations of False Claims Act violations arising from submitting claims to federal health care programs for cardiac monitoring tests. The claims were alleged to be false because a portion of the monitoring services were performed overseas. More specifically, CardioNet had sent certain tests for federal health care beneficiaries to be reviewed by technicians based in India. Medicare will not pay for services that are performed outside of the United States or United States territories (e.g., Guam, Puerto Rico). Because the services in question were performed in India, this rendered the claims false. The settlement arose from a whistleblower lawsuit brought by two former CardioNet employees. Dan has examined these issues and the complications associated with using offshore personnel to perform services in “The Lure of Foreign Shores: Outsourcing of Overseas Health Care Functions,”