A group of investors in a Louisiana-based in-home Medicare health service provider are investigating whether the company’s leadership allowed it to unfairly take advantage of the Medicare reimbursement system.

The Shareholders Foundation, an investor advocacy group, announced the action against Lafayette, La.-based LHC Group Inc.

In April, the Wall Street Journal reported that its analysis of Medicare payments to home health care companies in recent years raised some questions about whether LHC Group and others took advantage of the Medicare reimbursement system, according to a statement from The Shareholders Foundation.

LHC Group, which generated $531.9 million in revenue last year, provides post-acute health care services to patients through its in-home care facilities, including nursing agencies, hospices and long-term acute hospitals.

The shareholders’ investigation is probing whether the company’s directors and officers damaged LHC Group by causing or allowing it to unfairly take advantage of the Medicare reimbursement system by increasing the number of in-home therapy visits, some of which may not have been medically necessary, according to the Shareholders Foundation statement.

The newspaper article alleged that the percentage of LHC Group patients receiving 10 visits dropped by 64% from 2007 to 2008, when the Medicare reimbursement bonus for 10 visits was eliminated in January 2008.

The newspaper analysis has led to scrutiny, including by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, of LHC Group, as well as other companies named in the article, including Gentiva Health Services and Almost Family.