Vanguard Healthcare agrees to $2M settlement

Friday, November 4, 2011, Vol. 35, No. 44

NASHVILLE (AP) - Vanguard Healthcare LLC and its subsidiary Vanguard Health Care Ancillary have settled a whistleblower lawsuit with the federal government and Tennessee over claims that the firm defrauded Medicare and Medicaid for double-billing for services provided in nursing homes.

The Brentwood-based company agreed to pay approximately $1.9 million to the United States and $119,000 to Tennessee in a settlement announced Tuesday by the U.S. attorney's office in Nashville.

Prosecutors said Vanguard wrongly billed Medicare for enteral feeding systems and supplies that it also billed to the TennCare Medicaid program.

The Tennessean reported Vanguard said in a statement that it agreed to a settlement to avoid prolonging the litigation and denied any wrongdoing