Trending
By STEVEN ALLEN ADAMS
CHARLESTON – In what federal officials are calling the largest health care fraud settlement in state history, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia announced today a $17 million settlement with Acadia Healthcare Company in a Medicaid fraud scheme.
U.S. Attorney Mike Stuart held a press conference this morning to announce the settlement, of which West Virginia will receive $2.181 million. He was joined by officials with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the state Department of Health and Human Resources, and investigators with the West Virginia Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
“This is a strong message and a massive penalty,” Stuart said. “The message is clear: if you’re cheating the system, we will find you. You will not only pay the cost of your wrongdoing, you’ll pay for more than that.”
In the settlement, Acadia agreed to pay $17 million to resolve the allegations brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office that the firm defrauded Medicaid to the tune of $8.5 million, using a billing scheme.
Acadia operates seven out-patient drug treatment centers in the state as CRC Health in Wheeling, Charleston, Huntington, Parkersburg, Beckley, Williamson and Clarksburg. As well as administering Methadone, Suboxone, and Subutex for opioid addiction, the centers conduct blood and urine drug testing.
Between 2012 and 2018, Acadia used a subcontractor to handle complex drug testing that Acadia itself couldn’t handle in-house. Acadia paid San Diego Reference Lab directly, but then billed West Virginia Medicaid for the drug testing that San Diego Reference was doing. Medicaid then paid Acadia a substantially higher reimbursement for the more complicated testing which it was not qualified to perform.
Bill Crouch, secretary of DHHR, said the discrepancies were first found by the state Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, which then began working with federal and law enforcement partners.