Kaiser Permanente Pays $556 Million to Settle Allegations of Medicare Fraud

Kaiser allegedly pressured doctors to add false diagnoses to patient records, boosting federal Medicare payments by about $1 billion over nine years.

Kaiser Permanente’s Oakland, Calif., hospital, on Oct. 4, 2023. Jill McLaughlin/The Epoch Times

Kaiser Permanente, a health care system headquartered in Oakland, California, has agreed to pay $556 million to resolve allegations that it submitted invalid diagnosis codes for Medicare Advantage Plan enrollees, thereby receiving higher federal government payments.

The case started because two former Kaiser employees, Ronda Osinek and James M. Taylor, acted as whistleblowers and sued on behalf of the government.