Saad Enterprises Inc., doing business as Saad Healthcare, has agreed to pay $3 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by knowingly submitting false claims for the care of hospice patients in Alabama who were ineligible for the Medicare hospice benefit because they were not terminally ill. Hospice care is special, end-of-life care intended to comfort terminally ill patients. Patients admitted to hospice care generally stop receiving traditional medical care designed to cure their terminal condition and instead receive medical care focused on providing them with relief from the symptoms, pain, and stress of a terminal illness. Medicare patients are considered to be terminally ill and hospice-eligible when they have a life expectancy of six months or less if their illness runs its normal course. The settlement resolves allegations that between 2013 and 2020 Saad submitted, or caused the submission of, false claims to Medicare for 21 patients who did not meet the eligibility requirements for the Medicare hospice benefit as defined by statute and regulation, despite Saad knowing the patients were ineligible for the Medicare hospice benefit.
