Tennessee’s Rinova settles Medicare fraud claims for $100K

Published 10:18 am Thursday, May 21, 2020

NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee-based Rinova The Wellness Group has agreed to pay more than $100,000 to settle claims that it defrauded Medicare, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Nashville.

In 2019, Rinova purchased and leased some Pain MD clinics in Tennessee and Virginia, according to the release. Pain MD had been suspended from receiving Medicare payments after that company was accused of fraudulent billing. Rinova obtained new Medicare payment numbers, using the same employees, clinics, locations and patients as Pain MD, according to federal prosecutors. That amounted to an attempt to evade the suspension of Pain MD, prosecutors allege.

Medicare suspended payments to Rinova in June 2019 and revoked Rinova’s billing privileges in September 2019. The company has since ceased all operations. Under the settlement, Rinova also waived its claim to $379,961 in suspended Medicare payments.