Chicago-based Oak Street Health has agreed to pay $60 million to settle allegations that it paid kickbacks to insurance agents in exchange for their help recruiting patients. DOJ alleged that from 2020 to 2022, Oak Street had a program under which third-party insurance agents contacted seniors to market Oak Street to them. Agents would then refer interested seniors to an Oak Street employee through a three-way phone call. Oak Street would then typically pay the agents $200 per beneficiary they referred. The government alleged that Oak Street submitted false claims to Medicare because of violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute. CVS Health, which acquired Oak Street in 2023, noted in a statement Thursday that in the settlement, "There was no admission of — and we expressly deny — any wrongdoing."
