S.C. Hospice Firm Busted for Alleged Medicare Fraud

South Carolina-based Harmony Care Hospice and its CEO Daniel J. Burton have agreed to pay nearly $1.3 million to settle whistleblower allegations that the company defrauded Medicare, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.

The Irmo-based company, which has facilities in the Midlands, the Pee Dee and Upstate, including one near Mauldin, provides end-of-life care to terminally ill patients. Medicare beneficiaries are entitled to hospice care if they have a terminal prognosis of six months or less.

The United States alleged that Harmony and Burton "knowingly submitted or caused to be submitted" false claims for patients who did not have such a prognosis and thus were ineligible. 

Under today’s agreement, Burton is individually liable for $200,000 of the settlement amount, according to the Justice Department. 

Today’s settlement with Harmony and Burton resolves a lawsuit filed by former Harmony employees Mona Singletary and Lynda Fulton under the whistleblower provisions of the federal False Claims Act.

Under the act, private citizens can bring suit for false claims on behalf of the United States and share in any recovery. Together, Singletary and Fulton will receive $244,529.87 as their share of the government’s recovery, the Justice Department said.

As part of the settlement, Harmony and Burton will enter into a Corporate Integrity Agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General to address the allegations raised in the complaint and monitor their activities. 

“As budget pressures increase it is more important than ever to protect Medicare dollars and vigilantly guard against needless health spending,” Daniel R. Levinson, Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement. “The company and its owner have agreed to federal monitoring and reporting requirements designed to avoid such problems in the future.” 

The investigation was jointly handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina, the Justice Department’s Civil Division and the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services. The claims resolved by this settlement are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability, the Justice Department noted.