More than two dozen Democrats in Congress including U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota are asking a federal judge to let a whistleblower lawsuit move forward that alleges profiteering through the unlawful use of medical coding data by Eden Prairie-based UnitedHealth Group.
The lawmakers argue in their May 15 court filing that a jury should be allowed to pass judgment on company practices the U.S. Department of Justice alleges have wrongfully inflated corporate earnings from the Medicare Advantage (MA) program by billions of dollars at taxpayer expense. A special master who examined the evidence recommended earlier this year that the long-running whistleblower lawsuit should be terminated via summary judgment.
“It’s way past time to rein in the wasteful and harmful practices committed by corporate health insurers in MA starting with UnitedHealthcare,” Omar said in a statement to the Minnesota Star Tribune. “I joined the amicus brief to finally hold them accountable for stealing money from taxpayers and abusing the Medicare Advantage program.”
The lawsuit, which the Justice Department joined as a plaintiff in 2017, argues UnitedHealth Group engaged in one-sided reviews of medical charts to find evidence supporting higher payments for the company, but failed to use the same techniques to fix billing codes that would tend to lower the company’s fees.
In a statement, UnitedHealth Group pointed to a March report from a court-appointed special master that concluded the Justice...
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