American Sleep Medicine Agrees to Pay $15.3 Million for Improperly Billing Sleep Tests to the Government

According to the US Department of Justice, Florida-based American Sleep Medicine LLC has agreed to pay the government approximately $15,300,000 to resolve allegations that it billed Medicare and other government payors for diagnostic sleep services that were not eligible for payment. The payment settles a qui tam or False Claims Act lawsuit brought against the company by relator Daniel Purnell.

The United States asserted that American Sleep submitted false claims to that Medicare and TRICARE programs during an eight year period from January 1, 2004 through December 31, 2011. The lawsuit alleges that the claims were false because the company performed sleep tests with technicians who did not hold the required credentials or certifications to perform sleep testing under Medicare guidelines. The government claimed that American Sleep knew it was billing tests with improperly credentialed technicians when it billed the government for these tests.

The False Claims Act allows private citizens with knowledge of fraud to bring civil actions on behalf of the United States and share in any recovery. Relator Daniel Purnell received $2,601,228 as part of the settlement.

American Sleep is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida and owns and operates 19 diagnostic sleep testing centers in the states of Alabama, California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

In addition to the $15.3 million payment, American Sleep entered into a five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement with the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services. This agreement requires the company to constantly monitor its sleep testing activities with internal and external reviewers and make progress reports to the government.

For more information, please contact Dan Brown, Esq. at (770) 804-4700 or visit The HLP Website.