That $250 Million Settlement: because ML billed govt for dead people

ML billed CMS for testing on 60 dead people!!!!! Good god. What a bunch of scumbags! Govt should have fined them more -- and thrown 'em in jail.





Millennium Loan Plunges as Lab Tester Negotiates U.S. Settlement
2015-06-15 22:54:59.581 GMT


By Laura J. Keller
(Bloomberg) -- Millennium Health LLC’s $1.8 billion loan
tumbled to just over half of face value as investor concern
grows that the company’s cash will be squeezed by a government
settlement of a billing dispute.
Millennium, which sells urine-testing services to monitor
prescription drug use and potential abuse, disclosed to some of
its lenders that a draft agreement to settle with regulators and
the U.S. Justice Department calls for it to pay $250 million,
said two people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to
be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
The market value of the loan fell 2.6 cents on the dollar
to 52.1 cents on Monday, extending losses in six of the last
seven weeks that brought the debt down from above face value,
according to quotes compiled by Bloomberg.
The company faces the fine after a 31 percent decline in
one measure of its first-quarter earnings, the people said.
Millennium, owned by its management team and private-equity
firm TA Associates Management, has told investors it’s engaged
in a dispute with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
over alleged improper billing of the government health-care
agency for approximately 60 deceased people and unauthorized
documentation in other cases, the people with knowledge of the
disclosures said. The agency had threatened to revoke its
ability to bill CMS, the people said.

‘Move Forward’

“Millennium Health is very pleased to have reached an
agreement in principle to resolve all federal and state issues
involving the company,” Nicole Beckstrand, a spokeswoman for
San Diego-based Millennium, said by telephone. “While the
details are not finalized, this allows Millennium Health to move
forward as part of the federal health-care program.”
Beckstrand declined to comment further. Marcia O’Carroll, a
spokeswoman at TA Associates, declined to comment. A
representative for CMS declined to comment, saying that
negotiations with Millennium are “fluid” and confidential.
The Wall Street Journal reported the size of the
preliminary settlement on Sunday.
The labs tester limits access to its financial performance
information, restricting data to current and approved
prospective lenders, the people said.
First-quarter earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation
and amortization declined to $68 million from $98.4 million in
the year-earlier period, said two of the people. For the 12
months through March 31, Ebitda decreased to about $358 million,
compared with $387.5 million for the 2014 calendar year, the
people said.

Sales, Cash

Revenue dropped by less than $15 million to about $665
million, the people said.
Millennium’s cash balance was $69.4 million on March 31,
said one of the people. It had been $67.4 million at the end of
2014, said two of the people.
The company’s $50 million revolving loan due April 2019 had
no borrowings as of March 31, said one of the people.
The $1.78 billion term loan B due April 2021, issued when
the company was known as Millennium Labs, had begun last week
quoted at 72.4 cents on the dollar, according to data compiled
by Bloomberg. Only six term loans of $500 million or more that
are tracked by Bloomberg trade at less than 55 cents on the
dollar. These include obligations of Sabine Oil & Gas Corp. and
Walter Energy Inc., both of which have missed debt payments.

For Related News and Information:
Drug Tester Millennium Has Tentative Deal With Regulators
Risky Loans Shunned by Banks Are Booming in Wall Street’s Shadow
Leveraged Loan Market Asked to Stop Pretending Rates Aren’t Low

--With assistance from Caroline Chen in San Francisco.

 

$250 million fine for testing and billing 60 dead people? I love that spin. Hahahahaha!

 

What concerns me is did they have dirt tests? Nothing like dead people and dirty urine! They think that because they are dead they can get away with anything!

 

Yeah, I know I responded to an employee or someone who failed to make it past his/her 5th Grade Social Studies class but sometimes you just have to call out a person when he/she is ignorant. I am not the smartest person on this board by any means but bringing Obamacare into this discussion is the work of lazy people who don't want to learn the facts.