The Justice Department and Kaiser Permanente are nearing a deal in their behind-the-scenes negotiations over the government’s claim that the California health care giant bilked Medicare out of $1 billion.
The federal judge overseeing the DOJ’s long-running case against Kaiser on Friday granted a 90-day halt in proceedings while the two parties continue their discussions. In requesting the stay, lawyers for both sides said they had made “substantial progress in reaching an agreement to fully resolve” the three outstanding cases.
The government’s lawsuit against Kaiser, filed in 2021, consolidated six whistleblower lawsuits against the organization. Three of them have since been dismissed because they were deemed to be too similar to the others. In the lawsuits, former employees say Kaiser submitted inaccurate diagnosis codes for its Medicare Advantage members in order to receive more money from the government for their care.
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