AmeriHealth and its owners, Ryan and Alban Hatch, consented to a $2 million judgment against them in US District Court after admitting to violations of the False Claims Act. The fraud scheme involved using vulnerable or inexperienced medical staff to submit or cause to be submitted false claims to federal healthcare programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Tricare. Through the agreement to pay $2 million, the defendants also resolved, without admitting, additional allegations that they violated the Controlled Substances Act, the Anti-Kickback Statute, and fraudulently obtained Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. According to a Complaint filed by the United States in December 2023, AmeriHealth hired vulnerable, compromised, and inexperienced medical staff who were then pressured into providing unnecessary and worthless care, which resulted in false claims being submitted to federal healthcare programs. For example, owners Ryan and Alban Hatch ordered a hungover and impaired practitioner to provide medical care to unsuspecting patients. The Complaint also alleged that they pressured practitioners to prescribe controlled substances, entered into an unlawful kickback scheme with a third-party laboratory, and falsely certified information in order to obtain forgiveness of a PPP loan worth more than $750,000.
