BAKERSFIELD - Kern Health Systems has won a partial victory in a fraud lawsuit it filed against an auditing firm that was hired to examine medical claims, according to a statement provided by KHS.
A Los Angeles County jury awarded KHS $1.38 million in the civil action against Allied Management Group - Special Investigations Unit, and the company's then-owners Dennis Demetre and Lori Lewis. That amount was less than KHS had been offered in an earlier settlement proposal that was rejected by KHS attorneys.
KHS is a taxpayer-funded agency established by Kern County, and charged with managing health care delivery to low-income patients through Medi-Cal and other programs. The agency sued Allied Management and the other defendants in 2011, after hiring Allied to audit medical claims. The lawsuit alleged KHS was overcharged and defrauded, when it was billed $8 million dollars for the auditing services.
In its statement, KHS said that the jury awarded the damages for misrepresentations made by the defendants during the course of the audit. The contract between the two parties did not have a financial limit, and the audit was not put out to competitive bidding by other auditing companies.
A Los Angeles County jury awarded KHS $1.38 million in the civil action against Allied Management Group - Special Investigations Unit, and the company's then-owners Dennis Demetre and Lori Lewis. That amount was less than KHS had been offered in an earlier settlement proposal that was rejected by KHS attorneys.
KHS is a taxpayer-funded agency established by Kern County, and charged with managing health care delivery to low-income patients through Medi-Cal and other programs. The agency sued Allied Management and the other defendants in 2011, after hiring Allied to audit medical claims. The lawsuit alleged KHS was overcharged and defrauded, when it was billed $8 million dollars for the auditing services.
In its statement, KHS said that the jury awarded the damages for misrepresentations made by the defendants during the course of the audit. The contract between the two parties did not have a financial limit, and the audit was not put out to competitive bidding by other auditing companies.