US Justice Department: Cigna to pay $172 million fine for false claims

The United States Justice Department has announced that Cigna will pay $172,294,350 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by submitting and failing to withdraw inaccurate and untruthful diagnosis codes for its Medicare Advantage Plan enrollees. The false claims were designed to increase Cigna’s payments from Medicare.

Cigna also recently announced that it plans to raise individual health insurance premiums by 23.6% — more than double the industry average, according to Modern Healthcare.