The U.S. Department of Justice announced July 14 it has reached a settlement agreement with NextGen Healthcare over alleged violations of the the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute. NextGen will pay $31 million to resolve the allegations.
WHY IT MATTERS
The DOJ alleges that the electronic health record vendor misrepresented the capabilities of certain versions of its EHR software, and also claims that the company offered "unlawful remuneration to its users to induce them to recommend" its technology products.
The government had contended that NextGen falsely obtained meaningful use certification for its EHR software in connection with the 2014 Edition certification criteria published by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.
Specifically, the DOJ alleged that NextGen "relied on an auxiliary product designed only to perform the certification test scripts, which concealed from the certifying entity that NextGen's EHR lacked critical functionality."
As a result, the case held, the EHR software that the company ultimately released "lacked certain required functionalities, including the ability to record vital sign data, translate data into required medical vocabularies, and create complete clinical summaries."
The government complaint also alleges that NextGen violated the Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits the offering of any remuneration to "induce referrals of items or services covered by Medicare, Medicaid and other federally funded programs."
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