The U.S. Attorney’s Office has closed its investigation into Zoom Management Inc. and its officers and will not be pressing charges, bringing to a close the final of three legal hurdles the Portland-based healthcare company had been facing, officials with the business told The Lund Report in exclusive interviews.
“The investigation is now closed,” said David Angeli, attorney for Zoom co-founder Dave Sanders. Angeli acknowledged that federal investigators interviewed current and former employees and spent time in Zoom offices earlier this month.
According to former Zoom employees, the FBI received tips that Sanders directed Zoom Heath Plan workers to hide reimbursement information to limit the company’s risk-adjustment costs. In addition to Sanders, the company was co-founded by Albert DiPiero.
Oregon insurance regulators took the health plan into receivership in April in part due to concerns about its financial reports, which stated that it had received a $3 million cash transfer that was in fact a promissory note. That state investigation into Zoom concluded last week, when the company and its leaders agreed to pay $285,000 in penalties and to $2.1 million to cover member claims and liabilities.
Though Angeli declined to disclose details or discuss the nature of the federal investigation, he did note the comments by former Zoom workers and the state investigation into the company. “It would be fair to put two and two together a,nd you might get an idea,” he said.
Zoom Management Inc., Zoom Health Plans and Zoom+Care have been closely linked sister companies, sharing founders and funders and working in close operation. ZMI is the administrative branch of the brand name, Zoom+Care operates a network of neighborhood clinics in the Portland and Seattle areas. And Zoom Health Plans was the related insurance plan, which is now mostly shut down and is under the control of the Oregon Department of Business and Consumer Services.
In addition to the state and federal investigations, ZMI was also until recently engaged in a legal dispute with its biggest outside funder, Endeavour Capital, which briefly sought to put the business into receivership, saying its leaders were deadlocked and strained for cash. Both sides reached an agreement earlier this month before going to trial, however, with Endeavour gaining an extra seat on ZMI’s managing board, and providing additional funds to keep the business solvent.
With major legal matters now largely behind it, the company and its founders are focused on the future, Angeli told The Lund Report.
“There’s been a lot going on over at Zoom,” he said. “Dave and Albert are ready to get back to focusing on the business.”
Reach Courtney Sherwood at [email protected]
