eClinical Works has agreed to pay $155 million to resolve allegations the the EHR company misled consumers about the certification of it’s EHR technology and paid some customers kickbacks in return for positive promotion of it’s product, this is according to a press release by the Department of Justice May 31, 2017.
Since 2011, healthcare providers who used eClinical Works software and attested to satisfying the Meaningful Use objectives and measures received incentive payments through the Meaningful Use program. Had eClinical Works disclosed that its software did not meet the certification criteria, it would not have been certified and its customers would not have been eligible for incentive payments. In addition, requests for incentive payments that resulted from unlawful kickbacks constituted false claims.
eClinical Works paid unlawful remuneration to influential customers to recommend its product to prospective customer. Among other things, eClinical Works employed a “referral program” a “site visit program” and a “reference program”. Through its “referral program” eClinical Works paid current users as much as $500 for each provider they referred who executed a contract with eClinical Works. All of these programs violated the Anti-Kickback Statute and are included in the original complaint.
The company and its three founders — CEO Girish Navani, CMO Rajesh Dharampuriya, MD, and COO Mahesh Navani — will be responsible for paying $154.9 million to the federal government. One developer and two project managers are on the hook for a combined $80,000.
Under the settlement, the EHR company headquartered in central Massachusetts will enter into a five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement (CIA) with the Office of Inspector General (OIG), which includes a provision that eClinicalWorks “retain an Independent Software Quality Oversight Organization to assess ECW’s software quality control systems and provide written semi-annual reports to OIG and ECW documenting its reviews and recommendations.”
Customers of the EHR company will be able to obtain updated versions of eClinicalWorks at no cost or transfer their data to another EHR software free of charge.
