EMSA accused of accepting $20M in illegal kickbacks
Oklahoma City’s ambulance service, EMSA, was accused Monday by the federal government of accepting more than $20 million in illegal kickbacks from its former contractor.
EMSA’s CEO, Stephen Williamson, was accused in the civil fraud complaint of accepting expensive gifts from the contractor and of charging the contractor for spa visits and parties for EMSA employees.
The CEO also was accused of directing the contractor to make illegal contributions to Oklahoma politicians, “including city councilmen and mayoral candidates who determined whether EMSA continued ... in Tulsa and Oklahoma City.”
The Emergency Medical Services Authority provides ambulance service to more than 1.1 million residents in central and northeast Oklahoma. In a short statement Monday, EMSA said “it looks forward to continuing our mission long after this issue is resolved.”
The government, however, is seeking millions of dollars in damages and civil penalties from EMSA that would make it difficult for it to continue.
Attorneys for the U.S. Justice Department and a U.S. attorney’s office in Texas filed the civil fraud complaint in federal
court in Texas where the former contractor is based.
Named as defendants in the complaint are EMSA, Williamson and the East Texas Medical Center, the company that provided drivers, paramedics and emergency medical technicians to EMSA between 1998 and 2013.
The East Texas Medical Center (ETMC) paid the kickbacks to get and keep the lucrative contract awarded its subsidiary, Paramedics Plus LLC, the government alleges in the complaint.
The complaint filed by the government came in an existing civil case filed in 2014 by the former chief operating officer of Paramedics Plus. Government attorneys are alleging violations of both the federal False Claims Act and the Anti-Kickback Statute.
The government said it is seeking to recover damages for Medicare and Medicaid payments made to EMSA “in reliance on the erroneous belief that defendants were complying with” those laws.
From 2009 through 2013 alone, Medicare and Medicaid paid EMSA more than $108 million for ambulance services provided by Paramedics Plus, according to the complaint.
EMSA said Monday, “This case is in no way related to the high-quality care that the EMSA system provides to all patients. EMSA makes every effort to adhere to applicable rules, regulations and laws. EMSA has earned a reputation of providing Oklahomans with excellent ambulance service and looks forward to continuing our mission long after this issue is resolved.
Paramedics Plus President Ron Schwartz said, “One of our most precious freedoms is the right to defend ourselves against false accusations, even when brought by the federal government. We intend to vigorously exercise that right and expect to be vindicated.”
He described what the government alleges were kickbacks as returning “a share of our profit to EMSA, a standard and legal practice in this industry.”
“The whistleblower and the federal government now say that limiting our profit and returning a portion of it back to these communities somehow violated federal law,” Schwartz said.
In the civil complaint, government attorneys described the political contributions as “yet another form of kickbacks paid to benefit Williamson and EMSA.”
Williamson in 2011 denied any knowledge of whether Paramedics Plus made political donations in Oklahoma, according to the complaint.
“Williamson’s response was untrue and purposefully evasive to hide the illegal and unsavory reality that ETMC and Paramedics Plus functioned as his all-purpose slush fund,” government attorneys said in the complaint. “Williamson did in fact have information that would allow him to respond because he had personally asked for political donations from ETMC and Paramedics Plus and delivered some of the contribution checks to local politicians. Williamson knew the conduct was unlawful and deliberately concealed it.”
EMSA chose a new contractor in 2013, going with Greenwood Village, Colo.-based American Medical Response.