COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2022

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Legal Proceedings – Ongoing

We are involved in legal actions in the normal course of business, some of which seek monetary damages, including claims for punitive damages. Based on information available to us as of the date of this filing, we do not believe that these normal course actions, when finally concluded and determined, will have a material impact on our consolidated financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.

Legal fees related to all legal matters are expensed as incurred.

Legal Proceedings - Completed

Subpoena Duces Tecum and Civil Investigative Demands Issued by the U.S. Department of Justice

On May 7, 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice notified the Company that they were closing their investigation into the below-referenced Subpoena Duces Tecum ("Subpoena") and civil investigative demands ("CIDs"). At the time, we had $6.5 million recorded to accrued expenses in our consolidated balance sheets related to these matters. We reversed this accrual during the three-month period ended June 30, 2021.

On May 21, 2015, we received a Subpoena issued by the U.S. Department of Justice. The Subpoena requested the delivery of information regarding 53 identified hospice patients to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts. It also requested the delivery of documents relating to our hospice clinical and business operations and related compliance activities. The Subpoena generally covered the period from January 1, 2011 through May 21, 2015.

On November 3, 2015, we received a CID issued by the U.S. Department of Justice pursuant to the federal False Claims Act relating to claims submitted to Medicare and/or Medicaid for hospice services provided through designated facilities in the Morgantown, West Virginia area. The CID requested the delivery of information to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of West Virginia regarding 66 identified hospice patients, as well as documents relating to our hospice clinical and business operations in the Morgantown area. The CID generally covered the period from January 1, 2009 through August 31, 2015.

On June 27, 2016, we received a CID issued by the U.S. Department of Justice pursuant to the federal False Claims Act relating to claims submitted to Medicare and/or Medicaid for hospice services provided through designated facilities in the Parkersburg, West Virginia area. The CID requested the delivery of information to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia regarding 68 identified hospice patients, as well as documents relating to our hospice clinical and business operations in the Parkersburg area. The CID generally covered the period from January 1, 2011 through June 20, 2016.

Third Party Audits – Ongoing

From time to time, in the ordinary course of business, we are subject to audits under various governmental programs in which third party firms engaged by CMS, including Recovery Audit Contractors (“RACs”), Zone Program Integrity Contractors (“ZPICs”), Uniform Program Integrity Contractors (“UPICs”), Program Safeguard Contractors (“PSCs”), Medicaid Integrity Contractors (“MICs”), Supplemental Medical Review Contractors (“SMRCs”) and the Office of the Inspector General ("OIG"), conduct extensive reviews of claims data to identify potential improper payments. We cannot predict the ultimate outcome of any regulatory reviews or other governmental audits and investigations.

In July 2010, our subsidiary that provides hospice services in Florence, South Carolina received from a ZPIC a request for records regarding a sample of 30 beneficiaries who received services from the subsidiary during the period of January 1, 2008 through March 31, 2010 (the “Review Period”) to determine whether the underlying services met pertinent Medicare payment requirements. We acquired the hospice operations subject to this review on August 1, 2009; the Review Period covers time periods both before and after our ownership of these hospice operations. Based on the ZPIC’s findings for 16 beneficiaries, which were extrapolated to all claims for hospice services provided by the Florence subsidiary billed during the Review Period, on June 6, 2011, the Medicare Administrative Contractor ("MAC") for the subsidiary issued a notice of overpayment seeking recovery from our subsidiary of an alleged overpayment. We dispute these findings, and our Florence subsidiary has filed appeals through the Original Medicare Standard Appeals Process, in which we are seeking to have those findings overturned.

An administrative law judge ("ALJ") hearing was held in early January 2015. On January 18, 2016, we received a letter dated January 6, 2016 referencing the ALJ hearing decision for the overpayment issued on June 6, 2011. The decision was partially favorable with a new overpayment amount of $3.7 million with a balance owed of $5.6 million including interest based on 9 disputed claims (originally 16). We filed an appeal to the Medicare Appeals Council on the remaining 9 disputed claims and also argued that the statistical method used to select the sample was not valid. No assurances can be given as to the timing or outcome of the Medicare Appeals Council decision. As of December 31, 2022, Medicare has withheld payments of $5.7 million (including additional interest) as part of their standard procedures once this level of the appeal process has been reached. In the event we are not able to recoup this alleged overpayment, we are entitled to be indemnified by the prior owners of the hospice operations for amounts relating to the period prior to August 1, 2009. On January 10, 2019, an arbitration panel from the American Health Lawyers Association determined that the prior owners' liability for their indemnification obligation was $2.8 million. This amount is recorded as an indemnity receivable within other assets in our consolidated balance sheets.

In July 2016, the Company received a request for medical records from SafeGuard Services, L.L.C (“SafeGuard”), a ZPIC, related to services provided by some of the care centers that the Company acquired from Infinity Home Care, L.L.C. The review period covered time periods both before and after our ownership of the care centers, which were acquired on December 31, 2015. In August 2017, the Company received Requests for Repayment from Palmetto GBA, LLC (“Palmetto”) regarding Infinity Home Care of Lakeland, LLC, (“Lakeland Care Centers”) and Infinity Home Care of Pinellas, LLC, (“Clearwater Care Center”). The Palmetto letters were based on a statistical extrapolation performed by SafeGuard which alleged an overpayment of $34.0 million for the Lakeland Care Centers on a universe of 72 Medicare claims totaling $0.2 million in actual claims payments using a 100% error rate and an overpayment of $4.8 million for the Clearwater Care Center on a universe of 70 Medicare claims totaling $0.2 million in actual claims payments using a 100% error rate.

The Lakeland Request for Repayment covered claims between January 2, 2014 and September 13, 2016. The Clearwater Request for Repayment covered claims between January 2, 2015 and December 9, 2016. As a result of partially successful Level I and Level II Administrative Appeals, the alleged overpayment for the Lakeland Care Centers was reduced to $26.0 million and the alleged overpayment for the Clearwater Care Center was reduced to $3.3 million. The Company filed Level III Administrative Appeals, and the ALJ hearings regarding the Lakeland Request for Repayment and the Clearwater Request for Repayment were held in April 2022.

The Company received the results of the ALJ hearings for the Clearwater Care Center and the Lakeland Care Centers on June 23, 2022 and June 30, 2022, respectively. The ALJ decisions for both the Clearwater Care Center and the Lakeland Care Centers were partially favorable for the claims that were reviewed, but the extrapolations were upheld. As a result, we increased our total accrual related to these matters from $17.4 million to $25.8 million during the three-month period ended June 30, 2022. The net of these two amounts, $8.4 million, was recorded as a reduction to net service revenue in our consolidated statement of operations during the three-month period ended June 30, 2022. We received demands for repayment from Palmetto for both the Clearwater Care Center and the Lakeland Care Centers during the three-month period ended September 30, 2022. The demands were slightly less than our estimated accrual of $25.8 million. During the three-month period ended September 30, 2022, we adjusted our accrual to $25.2 million to reflect the final amounts owed, excluding interest. The repayment for the Lakeland Care Centers totaling $34.3 million ($22.8 million extrapolated repayment plus $11.5 million accrued interest) was made during the three-month period ended September 30, 2022. The repayment for the Clearwater Care Center totaling $3.7 million ($2.4 million extrapolated repayment plus $1.2 million accrued interest) was made during the three-month period ended December 31, 2022. Additionally, we wrote off $1.5 million of receivables that were impacted by these matters. We expect to be indemnified by the prior owners, upon exhaustion of the parties' appeal rights, for approximately $10.9 million and have recorded this amount within other assets in our consolidated balance sheets.

Insurance

We are obligated for certain costs associated with our insurance programs, including employee health, workers’ compensation and professional liability. While we maintain various insurance programs to cover these risks, we are self-insured for a substantial portion of our potential claims. We recognize our obligations associated with these costs, up to specified deductible limits in the period in which a claim is incurred, including with respect to both reported claims and claims incurred but not reported. These costs have generally been estimated based on historical data of our claims experience. Such estimates, and the resulting reserves, are reviewed and updated by us on a quarterly basis.

The following table presents details of our insurance programs, including amounts recorded, for the periods indicated within accrued expenses in our consolidated balance sheets. The amounts below represent our total estimated liability for individual

claims that are less than our noted insurance coverage amounts, which can include outstanding claims and claims incurred but not reported (amounts in millions).


	As of December 31,
Type of Insurance	2022		2021
Health insurance	$	16.2	$	16.2
Workers’ compensation	40.8		40.5
Professional liability	5.0		5.2
	62.0		61.9
Less: long-term portion	(0.2)		(0.2)
	$	61.8	$	61.7

Our health insurance has an exposure limit of $1.3 million for any individual covered life. Our workers compensation insurance has a retention limit of $2.0 million per incident, and our professional liability insurance has a retention limit of $0.3 million per incident.

Severance

We have commitments related to our severance plans applicable to a number of our senior executives and senior management, which generally commit us to pay severance benefits under certain circumstances.

Other

We are subject to various other types of claims and disputes arising in the ordinary course of our business. While the resolution of such issues is not presently determinable, we believe that the ultimate resolution of such matters will not have a significant effect on our consolidated financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.