By Meredith Cohn, The Baltimore Sun 10:11 a.m. EDT, September 17, 2011
When Maxim Healthcare Services settled one of the government's largest-ever medical fraud cases last week, the
Medicaid and Veterans Affairs contractor agreed to pay $150 million and implement a host of corporate reforms.
But Maxim, a Columbia-based home health and medical staffing company founded by Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti, avoided the penalty that would have the biggest impact on its bottom line: disbarment from federal health care programs.
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Whistleblower in Maxim case is role model for fraud detection - Columbia firm settles $150M fraud case with federal government That's the case with nearly all of the companies ever charged with cheating government programs — including thousands of health care companies that are defendants in most of the cases and that settled civil charges for a record $2.5 billion in the 2010 fiscal year.
"It's known as 'pay and chase' — pay the money out now and chase it down later when we find out there is fraud," said Paul Thacker, an investigator at the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight. "The fines become a cost of doing business."
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