Crawford and Company, the Atlanta-based claims management firm, has agreed to pay $1,363,204 to settle charges a subsidiary falsely inflated bills on government contracts, the Justice Department announced yesterday.
The company said the civil agreement involved an issue that it dealt with three years ago in a criminal settlement.
According to the Justice Department, the alleged violations of the False Claims Act took place between 1992 and 2002, when the firm was providing workers' compensation-related services to the government.
Federal authorities said the work involved services intended to streamline the delivery of medical care to injured federal employees, and to expedite employees' reentry into the workforce.
Crawford, it was charged, engaged in false claim practices, including billing the government for services at rates set by Crawford managers, rather than billing the actual time spent performing that service.
Additionally, the company allegedly billed the entire time spent on one activity to multiple client files, instead of dividing that time between the applicable files, and attempted to pass along overhead expenses to the government by invoicing them as incurred costs, the Justice Department said.
Peter D. Keisler, assistant attorney general for the Department's Civil Division, noted that the company had run afoul of authorities in 2003, when a Crawford subsidiary pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud in connection with similar conduct at its Baltimore and Norfolk, Va. offices.
Crawford has 700 offices in 63 countries.
"This settlement illustrates the United States' determination to recover funds inappropriately billed on government contracts," Mr. Keisler said.
The investigation preceding the settlement was described the Justice Department as a joint effort by the Offices of the Inspectors General of the Department of Labor, U.S. Postal Service, Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service.
Attorneys from the Justice Department's Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Division, negotiated the civil settlement, said the Justice Department.
Crawford, on Feb. 3, 2004, amended a company Code of Business Conduct, which, according to the firm's Web site, "requires strict adherence to the letter and the spirit of all laws applicable to the conduct of our business and demands high standards of integrity and sound ethical judgment from our directors, officers and employees."
Crawford's posting says it has established an Ethics Committee, which has the responsibility for periodic review and implementation of the code.
Kara Grady, a spokesperson for the company, said the settlement dealt with issues from 1992 to 2002, which were "dealt with in the 2003 criminal settlement with the DOJ Criminal Division that involved a subsidiary and only two health care management offices. This settlement ties up loose ends on this very old matter." She identified the subsidiary as HCM.
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