The Department of Justice filed a new lawsuit against Cigna Monday, alleging the health insurance company overcharged the federal government by purposefully inflating how sick its Medicare Advantage members were.
The decision is a change of heart from federal prosecutors, who originally declined to intervene in the whistleblower case back in 2020.
But the lawsuit now stands as yet another push from the federal government to crack down on the longstanding, widespread practice of insurers exaggerating the conditions of their Medicare Advantage enrollees to get more money from Medicare. Over the past two years alone, the DOJ has joined separate, similar lawsuits against the Medicare Advantage plans operated by Kaiser Permanente and Elevance (the Blue Cross Blue Shield insurer formerly known as Anthem) and settled cases with several other Medicare Advantage insurers.
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