The Peace Officers' Annuity and Benefit Fund of Georgia has sued Denver-based DaVita for allegedly inflating its profits by steering Medicare and Medicaid patients to private insurers that paid DaVita 10 times more for dialysis treatments than the government health plans, according to The Denver Post.
The lawsuit, which is seeking class-action status, claims that after DaVita convinced patients to drop their government health plans, officials told patients to apply for premium assistance from the American Kidney Fund, a nonprofit to which DaVita contributes.
DaVita receives about $300 in reimbursement per dialysis session from Medicaid and Medicare, while private insurers pay the company about $4,000 per treatment, according to the report.
The lawsuit claims DaVita steered patients eligible for Medicaid and Medicare to private health plans to boost its profits from about August 2015 through October 2016.
In a statement to The Denver Post, DaVita spokesman Skip Thurman said, "We dispute the allegations and intend to vigorously defend against this action."
DaVita isn't the only dialysis company accused of maximizing profits by steering patients to private health plans. In July, Minnetonka, Minn.-based UnitedHealth Group sued American Renal Associates, alleging the Beverly, Mass.-based dialysis chain pumped up its profits by convincing patients to enroll in plans UnitedHealth sold on the ACA exchanges instead of Medicare and/or Medicaid. The insurer accused the ARA of connecting these patients with the American Kidney Fund to help pay their insurance premiums.
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