Outcome Health to pay $70M to settle fraud claim

Chicago-based Outcome Health agreed Wednesday to pay a $70 million settlement in a federal fraud investigation, according to the U.S. attorney's office of the Northern District of Illinois.

Outcome, which provides digital medical information and advertising in doctors' offices, admitted to federal investigators that former executives and employees of the company defrauded clients - most of which were pharmaceutical companies - by selling advertising inventory it did not have between 2012 and 2017.

"For five years, employees of Outcome Health purposely failed to deliver on advertising campaigns and engaged in a pattern of misrepresentations to conceal their fraud," said Special Agent in Charge Emmerson Buie Jr. of the FBI's Chicago Field Office.

The company invoiced clients as if it had delivered in full, investigators said, and employees falsified affidavits and proofs of performance to make it appear Outcome was delivering advertising content to the number of screens in its clients' contracts. Outcome executives and employees during that time also inflated patient engagement metrics regarding how frequently patients engaged with Outcome's devices.

"Today's agreement holds a health care technology company accountable for systematically committing fraudulent business practices for financial gain over many years," said Inspector General Jay N. Lerner of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's Office of Inspector General (FDIC-OIG).