Two mental healthcare providers in the South Texas area have agreed to pay $1,083,000 to resolve False Claims Act (FCA) allegations regarding the submission of claims to Medicare, TRICARE and Medicaid that non-physician personnel rendered, announced US Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani. From 2017 through 2020, Texas Behavioral Health PLLC (TBH) and United Psychiatry Institute LLC (UPI) allegedly engaged in a pattern and practice of falsely billing Medicare Part B. According to the allegations, TBH and UPI would submit claims for mental health services that physicians had not rendered or not directly supervised as Medicare regulations require. Some services occurred on dates when the physicians were traveling outside of the United States and thus unable to provide the services. Others allegedly occurred at times when it was not logistically possible for the physicians to have rendered them or directly supervised the services themselves due to the sheer volume of patients at multiple office locations located in and around the Houston area.
