A York County man is charged with submitting thousands of false claims to Medicare. Kurt Bauer, 61, is facing a civil health care fraud lawsuit filed by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
The lawsuit alleges that Bauer, despite being excluded from participation in Medicare, was a manager and administrator of Leader Heights Healthcare, P.C., which caused the submission of thousands of false claims to Medicare.
According to U.S. Attorney Peter Smith, Leader Heights Healthcare, formerly ChiroCare Center, is a York County-based
chiropractic and primary care provider that accepted Medicare patients. The complaint alleges that Bauer owned Leader Heights
under its former name, but his chiropractic license was revoked by the Pennsylvania Department of State in 2008 for an inappropriate relationship with a patient, resulting in Bauer’s exclusion from Medicare. According to the complaint, the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services warned Bauer that he generally could no longer be employed and could not provide
administrative and management services for a Medicare provider because of the exclusion.
Despite the warning and after falsely informing Medicare that he had “[r]etired,” Bauer allegedly retained ownership of
Leader Heights Healthcare until 2009 and continued to be involved in the management and administration of Leader Heights
until he learned of the government’s investigation in 2013.
During this period of time, Leader Heights Healthcare allegedly submitted thousands of claims to Medicare for reimbursement for several million dollars. Between 2008 and 2013, Leader Heights received approximately $3 million from Medicare.
The government contends that, because of Bauer’s involvement in the management and administration of Leader Heights during his exclusion, Bauer knowingly caused the submission of false claims to Medicare that improperly sought reimbursement for the services he provided.
The government’s lawsuit is brought pursuant to the False Claims Act. Under the False Claims Act, a person that causes the submission of false or fraudulent claims to the government is liable for three times the government’s damages, plus civil penalties for each false claim. The claims asserted against Bauer are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.
This matter was investigated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General and the Health Care Fraud Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The case is assigned to Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Scicchitano of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Civil Division.