The United States has filed a civil healthcare fraud lawsuit against Issac Laufer, Tami Whitney, Montclair Care Center, Inc., East Rockaway Center LLC, Excel at Woodbury for Rehabilitation and Nursing, LLC, Long Island Care Center Inc., Treetops Rehabilitation & Care Center LLC, Sutton Park Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation, LLC, Suffolk Restorative Therapy & Nursing, LLC, Oasis Rehabilitation and Nursing, LLC, Forest Manor Care Center, Inc., Surge Rehabilitation & Nursing LLC, Quantum Rehabilitation & Nursing LLC, and Paragon Management SNF LLC (collectively the “Defendants”). The lawsuit seeks damages and civil penalties under the False Claims Act for fraudulently billing Medicare for unreasonable and unnecessary services provided to patients at eleven skilled nursing facilities located in New York (the “Facilities”).
The complaint alleges that, during the period from at least January 2010 through September 2019, Defendants systematically kept patients at the Facilities longer than necessary in order to maximize the amount billed to Medicare for the patients’ stays. During those stays, the Facilities systematically put patients on higher levels of rehabilitation therapy than necessary based on their actual clinical needs in order to bill Medicare at the highest rate. Issac Laufer, who is a part owner of ten of the eleven Facilities and operates all eleven Facilities through Paragon Management SNF LLC, and Tami Whitney, the Coordinator of Rehabilitation Services for the Facilities, instructed and pressured staff to engage in these fraudulent practices. As a result, according to the complaint, the Facilities submitted, or caused to be submitted, false claims for payment for rehabilitation services that were unreasonable and unnecessary, or in some cases, did not even involve the provision of skilled therapy.
