National Spine and Pain Centers and Physical Medicine Associates will pay the federal government $3.3 million to settle allegations that they illegally billed Medicare and other federal healthcare providers, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Three key details:
1. Both organizations operate pain management clinics in northern Virginia, Fredericksburg, Va., and Glen Allen, Va. They are accused of billing for medical services as if they were provided by physicians, when they were actually performed by physician assistants and nurse practitioners.
2. The pain clinics also ordered medically unnecessary urine drug tests and submitted illegal claims for those services, according to federal prosecutors.
3. A former physician assistant at Physical Medicine Associates filed the lawsuit under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act. The whistleblower will be awarded up to 25 percent of the settlement.