CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – A Corpus Christi health care company has agreed to pay $990,478.46 to resolve allegations they violated the False Claims Act by submitting claims to Medicare for non-covered hospice services, announced U.S. Attorney Jennifer B. Lowery.

The settlement resolves allegations that Familia Healthcare Services Inc. dba Del Cielo Hospice and Palliative Care knowingly submitted false claims from May 12, 2017, through Jan. 31, 2022. The claims allegedly involved hospice services for patients who were not eligible for, and did not qualify for, the hospice benefit in violation of the False Claims Act.

“This office is committed to pursuing providers who put profits ahead of patients,” said Lowery. “The decision to provide hospice services should be prompted by a patient’s terminally ill medical diagnosis, not a hospice provider’s desire to boost its profits.”

Hospice care is special, end-of-life care intended to comfort terminally ill patients. To be eligible for the Medicare hospice benefit, a patient must be “terminally ill,” meaning that the patient has a medical prognosis that their life expectancy is six months or less if the illness runs its normal course.

“The Medicare trust fund is not a piggy bank to be used at will by those intent on stealing from it,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Jason Meadows, Department of Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General (DHHS-OIG). We, along with our law enforcement partners, will use all available...

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