Lincare Holdings, Inc., a Florida-based, wholly-owned subsidiary of German multinational chemical corporation Linde plc, has agreed to pay $29 million and perform extensive corrective actions to resolve allegations that it fraudulently overbilled Medicare and Medicare Advantage Plans for oxygen equipment, announced Vanessa R. Waldref, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington. The settlement is the largest-ever healthcare fraud settlement in the Eastern District of Washington. Lincare provides oxygen equipment to patients with respiratory ailments such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), including leasing oxygen tanks and home and portable oxygen concentrators to assist patients to breathe while in the home or traveling. Between 2012 and 2023, traditional Medicare (also known as Medicare Part B) reimbursed providers such as Lincare for the lease payments on oxygen equipment, but after three years of monthly lease payments, providers such as Lincare were required to continue to provide the oxygen equipment to the patient, but were not eligible for additional rental payments because Medicare had already reimbursed the provider for the full purchase price of the equipment.
Lincare admitted that it improperly billed Medicare, MA Plans, and beneficiaries for oxygen equipment rental payments and co-payments after it had already received 3 years of payments. Lincare admitted that it lacked adequate controls to ensure that MA Plans and beneficiaries were not improperly billed after 3 years of rental payments had already been received. Lincare additionally admitted that for traditional Medicare recipients, it had controls in place to prevent improper billing, but that those controls were not always effective. Finally, Lincare admitted that when Lincare employees raised concerns about Lincare’s billing practices, Lincare officials in its Regional Billing and Collections Office located in Spokane Valley, Washington, and at Lincare’s corporate headquarters in Clearwater, Florida, instructed them that Lincare would continue its billing practices. The settlement resolved claims that Lincare’s conduct violated the False Claims Act.
