DOJ settles CityMD Covid fraud allegations for $12 million – NBC Connecticut

• Walgreens-backed CityMD will pay $12.04 million to settle Covid fraud allegations brought by the Justice Department.
• During two years of the pandemic, CityMD allegedly obtained fraudulent government reimbursements for Covid tests by submitting false claims to a Covid program specifically for uninsured patients, even when their patients had health insurance.
• A CityMD patient initially brought the fraud allegations to the government's attention and, as a result, will receive more than $2 million of the DOJ's winnings in this case.

CityMD, backed by Walgreens, will pay $12.04 million to settle Covid fraud allegations brought by the Department of Justice, the department announced Friday.

From February 2020 to April 2022, the urgent care provider allegedly obtained fraudulent government reimbursements for Covid tests by submitting false claims to a Covid program specifically for uninsured patients, even when their patients had insurance disease.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey brought the allegations under the False Claims Act, a law that incentivizes whistleblowers to file lawsuits related to potential fraud by providing them with a portion of the government's winnings in successful business.

Stephen Kitzinger, a CityMD patient, initially alleged the fraud in 2020. As reward for bringing the matter to the government's attention, Kitzinger will receive more than $2 million from the settlement.

CityMD, which operates more than 100 walk-in urgent care practices in New York and New Jersey, cooperated with the government's investigation and hired a third-party company to help the government determine how much money was been lost due to the alleged fraud. according to the DOJ.

“Uninsured Americans who were at risk of contracting COVID-19 were covered by emergency funding programs that made the tests, vaccines and treatments they needed available to them,” the prosecutor said Friday American Philip R. Sellinger in a press release. “The alleged misappropriation of these funds is something we cannot and will not tolerate.”

Walgreens did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside of normal business hours.