When Greenway Health settled the $57.25 million False Claims and Anti-Kickback charges with the U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday, the EHR vendor became the second one to meet a similar fate.

eClinicalWorks in late May of 2017 settled its own False Claims case to the tune of $155 million.

With the major settlements completed, the attorneys involved are cautioning other electronic health record vendors as well.

"In the last two years my office has resolved two matters against leading EHR developers where we alleged significant fraudulent conduct," said United States Attorney for the District of Vermont Christina Nolan in a statement. "These are the two largest recoveries in the history of this District and represent the return of over two-hundred and twelve million dollars of fraudulently-obtained taxpayer monies."

Nolan added that the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback cases are important because they help to both prevent theft of taxpayer money and to advance patient safety, information flow and the broader promise of health IT.

After the eClinicalWorks settlement, a DOJ official declined to comment to Healthcare IT News about whether it would pursue similar investigations into other electronic health record companies.

Legal experts, meanwhile, said the industry should expect more DOJ probes of EHR makers — and now Nolan spoke out with a similar message.

"This resolution demonstrates my office’s initiative and resolve to vigorously uncover and to doggedly pursue these complex cases. We will be unflagging in our efforts to preserve the accuracy and reliability of Americans’ health records and guard the public against corporate greed," said Nolan. "EHR companies should consider themselves on notice."

Twitter: @SullyHIT
Email the writer: tom.sullivan@himssmedia.com 

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