By Dan Margoiles

A Kansas City, Kansas, home health care agency and its owner will pay $1.8 million to settle allegations that it paid kickbacks in return for referrals of Medicaid patients to the agency.

Best Choice Home Health Care Agency Inc. and its owner, Reginald B. King, will pay the federal government just over $1 million and the state of Kansas $788,220 to resolve the case, according to court documents unsealed on Monday.

The case was filed under the False Claims Act by the recipient of the kickbacks, Christopher Thomas of Parkville, Missouri. The act allows citizens to sue on behalf of the government and collect a portion of any recovery if the government decides to intervene, which it did in this case.

Although Thomas was the recipient of the illegal kickbacks, he’ll collect $43,178, according to a news release from the Justice Department. That represents 10 percent of the federal share of the settlement, minus the kickbacks he received.

Typically, whistleblowers are entitled to anywhere from 15 to 30 percent of the total recovery in a case. But that share is reduced if the whistleblower himself took part in the fraud.

Thomas’ attorney could not be reached for comment. A call to King at Best Choice’s office was not returned.

Thomas filed his lawsuit under the False Claims Act in May 2013. However, because the act requires that such cases be filed under seal unless and until the government intervenes, it was not made public until Monday.

According to the court documents, here’s how the scheme unfolded:

Best Choice, which was located at 6625 State Avenue until June 2012 and then at 1232 North 79th Street, offered home health care services to Medicaid patients with head injuries. Thomas worked there as an office assistant before setting up his own business, Vision Group Transport Service. The business transported patients from their home to health care facilities.

Around July 2010, King offered to pay Thomas to refer clients to Best Choice. Thomas, who also briefly worked as a case manager at Best Choice while operating Vision Group Transport, accepted.

From about July 2010 to Jan. 25, 2013, Thomas referred more than 100 clients to Best Choice. In return, King paid Thomas and Vision Group $58,000.

Besides paying Thomas, King also paid a former employee for referrals. And according to Thomas, other employees of Best Choice, including relatives of King, falsified the number of hours they worked for clients.

One employee was working at a QuikTrip when he claimed to have performed work as a transitional living specialist (TLS). Another worked full time for Time Warner Cable while reporting up to 80 hours per week of TLS services. Yet another claimed to have performed TLS services for a client who was incarcerated or homeless at the time.

Documents on file with the Kansas Secretary of State’s office show that King, a resident of Shawnee, incorporated Best Choice in 2001.

The Justice Department news release said the claims resolved by the settlement “are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability.”

A spokesperson for the Justice Department could not be reached for comment.

Dan Margolies, editor of the Heartland Health Monitor team, is based at KCUR. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An official with the Kansas secretary of state’s office says it has determined that ballot selfies are legal in the state after all.

Elections Director Bryan Caskey said Monday that the office has re-examined a state law that makes it a felony to disclose a ballot’s contents and concluded it applies to election officials but not voters themselves.

Ballot selfies are illegal in some states . Federal judges have struck down bans in Indiana and New Hampshire.

A secretary of state’s office spokeswoman said earlier this month that taking selfies at a polling place is legal but “a picture of the actual ballot violates Kansas law.”

Caskey said repeated questions led the secretary of state’s office to further review the law.

He says, “There’s not a law that prohibits it.”

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City police say a 3-year-old boy who died last week was accidentally shot by his 5-year-old brother.

Police say Jermone L. Green was shot Thursday at the townhouse where he lived. Efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.

Investigators are trying to determine how the 5-year-old got hold of the gun. Several adults were inside the residence when the shooting occurred.

The Kansas City Star reports that the case has been forwarded to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office, which will determine whether criminal charges will be filed.

SALINE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating two suspects on drug charges.

Just after midnight on Saturday, a deputy sheriff stopped a speeding 2005 Pontiac Grand Am just west of Hedville Interstate 70, according to Saline County Undersheriff Roger Soldan.

The deputy noticed the odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle and discovered 72.9 grams of the drug inside the car in several individually labeled bags as well as several pieces of drug paraphernalia.

Deputies arrested Jerry Townsend, 19, Shell Knob, Missouri, and Brandon Wisely, 18, Holiday Island, Arkansas.

Both men were booked into the Saline County Jail on requested charges of possession of marijuana, possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to Soldan.