Tampa's Greenway Health to pay $57.25M in fraud settlement

Tampa medical records management company Greenway Health has agreed to pay $57.25 million in a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over alleged Medicare fraud.

In a settlement reached last week, authorities said that Greenway lied to both customers and the federal government by telling them its records management software met standards that would qualify customers for payments through a Medicare and Medicaid incentive program.

"Electronic health records are critically important to the health care decision process," said Jody Hunt, assistant attorney general of the Department of Justice's Civil Division. "This resolution demonstrates our continued commitment to pursue (electronic health record) vendors who misrepresent the capabilities of their products."

Greenway provides software to health care providers around the country, including in Vermont, where the lawsuit was filed. According to the filing, Greenway allegedly passed the Department of Health and Human Services certification by modifying the software that it presented for auditing to look as if it met the qualifications.

"Had Greenway disclosed that its 'Prime Suite' software did not meet" certification criteria, the lawsuit said, "it would not have been certified and its users would not have been eligible for incentive payments."

Its customers, the Department of Justice said in a release, collected payments through the incentive program falsely believing they were eligible. It said Greenway attracted new customers by touting the incentives they could receive with their software.

The settlement is not an admission of guilt, Greenway said in a statement.

"This agreement allows us to focus on innovation while collaborating with our customers to improve the delivery of healthcare and the health of our communities,"said CEO Richard Atkin.

Contact Malena Carollo at mcarollo@tampabay.com or (727) 892-2249. Follow @malenacarollo.