Edward M. Yarbrough
United States Attorney
Ellen Bowden McIntyre
Assistant U.S. Attorney
(615) 736-2125
CHARLES MADISON WARREN, III AGREES TO PAY $1,308,272 TO SETTLE MEDICARE FRAUD CASE
Nashville, TN - February 13, 2008 - Edward M. Yarbrough, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, announced that Charles Madison Warren, III has entered into a settlement with the United States in which he agreed to pay a total sum of $1,308,272. United States District Judge William J. Haynes, Jr. previously ordered Warren to pay $533,951 in restitution to the Medicare program for committing criminal health care fraud, but Warren had not actually paid this amount prior to this settlement. The United States had also filed a civil suit under the False Claims Act regarding the same actions to which Warren had pled guilty. In this new settlement resolving the monetary aspects of the criminal restitution and all aspects of the civil suit, Warren agreed to pay an additional $774,321 to the United States. Of this total, the United States will pay $186,060 to Warren’s former employee, who originally filed this civil whistle blower lawsuit. Warren has already served 1 year and 1 day in federal prison for his crimes.
When these crimes were committed, Warren owned and operated two companies based in Clarksville, Tennessee: Complete Home Health Care, Inc. (“Complete”), a home health agency that served Medicare beneficiaries, and Complete Health Professional Services, Inc. (“CHPS”), an agency providing private duty nursing services to non-Medicare beneficiaries. Complete was certified as a Medicare home health provider, but CHPS was not. Warren’s plea hearing showed that Warren submitted misleading documents to Medicare that hid the existence of CHPS as an entity, falsely asserted that Warren was not employed by CHPS, and improperly sought reimbursement for non-Medicare costs of CHPS from Medicare during the years 1998, 1999 and 2000. By submitting these misleading representations, as shown at the plea hearing, Warren caused Complete to receive substantially more Medicare reimbursements than Complete was entitled to receive for these years.
The conviction and settlement agreement were the result of an investigation conducted by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ellen Bowden-McIntyre represented the United States.