FRANKFORT – Gov. Matt Bevin’s newly selected running mate, Dr. Ralph Alvarado, was among the doctors alleged to have accepted “illicit" gifts while referring Medicare patients to a Lexington home health care agency, according to a lawsuit settled in 2015.

In the civil lawsuit, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said evidence showed Alvarado received $12,000 in campaign contributions between 2004 and 2010, plus two tickets to a University of Kentucky basketball game, tickets to a “Coaches Night” event, and an “Edible Arrangement” gift basket in 2010.

The contributions and gifts to Alvarado are mentioned in filings in a federal False Claims Act lawsuit against Nurses Registry and Home Health Corp. The case accused Nurses Registry, at the direction of former owner Lennie House, of defrauding the Medicare program.

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It outlined several allegations against Nurses Registry, including that House distributed tickets to sports and entertainment events and other remuneration to 24 doctors —including Alvarado — to induce or reward them to refer Medicare patients to Nurses Registry for home health care services.

Nurses Registry denied the allegations, but in September 2015, it settled the case for $16 million. Lennie House died about seven months before the case was settled by his widow and his estate.

Alvarado was not named as a defendant in the case. But documents in the case say he was one of the largest referral sources to Nurses Registry at the time and one of 24 doctors who received some form of gift from Nurses Registry while referring patients to it.

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Alvarado, who has served in the Kentucky Senate since 2015, declined to comment about the matter when asked by a Courier Journal reporter in Frankfort on Wednesday morning, and again later Wednesday afternoon.

But, in between, he released a statement that said, "The federal settlement with Nurses Registry had nothing to do with me. This is just another attempt to smear my good reputation as a medical doctor with a bogus story. This type of nonsense is why many good people dislike politics.”

Members of Bevin's staff also did not respond to an email asking for comment about the case Wednesday morning.

Former Nurses Registry employees Alisia Robinson-Hill and David Price initiated the suit in 2008. Such federal whistleblower cases are initially filed under seal and reviewed by the U.S. Justice Department to see if it wants to join to help recover federal dollars. The Justice Department did so in 2011.

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Medicare pays for home health care if a doctor certifies that a patient requires it. The lawsuit alleged, among other violations of the law, Nurses Registry provided various forms of “illicit remuneration” to doctors to induce or reward patient referrals.

A motion filed in the case by the federal government alleges gifts to the 24 doctors, some of whom got more than Alvarado. Besides sports tickets, the document says Nurses Registry gifts to other doctors included bottles of liquor, tickets to concerts of Taylor Swift and the Jonas Brothers, meals and gift baskets.

The federal government alleged Alvarado got tickets to a "Coaches Night," which the government alleged were broadcasts of radio shows of UK's basketball and football coaches at which the invited doctor could meet the coach and enjoy free food and drink.

A federal motion in the case says Lennie House aggressively sought lucrative referrals of patients whose home care would be reimbursed by Medicare. The case alleged he oversaw employees called "community educators" to inform doctors of the services Nurses Registry could provide their patients,

But the federal government said the community educators were paid partly on commission — and sometimes got cash bonuses, for the number of Medicare referrals they generated for the company.

Court records filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office said records show that Alvarado referred 457 patients to Nurses Registry in 2006, resulting in reimbursement from Medicare to Nurses Registry totaling $1,187,517. In 2010, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Alvarado made 161 referrals, resulting in Medicare reimbursements to Nurses Registry of $444,013.

After months of speculation of whether he would keep Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton on his re-election ticket, Bevin last month announced he was replacing Hampton and filed for re-election with Alvarado as his running mate.

Mark Wohlander, an attorney who represented the former Nurses Registry employees who initially filed the case, said he was surprised Bevin picked Alvarado as his running mate because Alvarado "had been involved in this case that involved Medicare fraud."

Wohlander said, "When I heard that Gov. Bevin announced Sen. Alvarado as his running mate, I was somewhat perplexed to think: Had they not taken the time to vet Sen. Alvarado and his involvement in this case?"

Reporter Tom Loftus can be reached at 502-875-5136 or tloftus@courier-journal.com. Twitter: @TomLoftus_CJ.