Cardiac monitoring firms to pay more than $44 million to resolve allegations of false claims act violations -U.S.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - BioTelemetry Inc. and its subsidiary CardioNet LLC have agreed to pay $44.9 million to resolve allegations that they knowingly submitted claims to Medicare, TRICARE, the Veterans Health Administration and the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program for heart monitoring tests that were performed, in part, outside the United States, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday.

The government alleged that CardioNet improperly billed Medicare and other federal health care programs for certain cardiac monitoring services — including Holter, event monitoring, and mobile cardiovascular telemetry (MCT) tests — that were performed overseas in violation of federal law that prohibits payment for services furnished outside the United States, the Justice Department said in a statement.

The heart monitoring tests were performed in many cases by technicians who were not qualified to perform such tests, the statement said.

(Reporting By Paul Grant; Editing by Caitlin Webber)