A Dallas law firm obtained a federal court jury verdict of more then $2.75 million for a whistleblower in a Medicare fraud case against Healthcare Associates of Texas.
Cheryl Taylor, acting on behalf of herself and the United States through a qui tam False Claims Act complaint, alleged the defendant submitted tens of thousands of fraudulent claims.
The jury, after a two-week trial before U.S. District Court Chief Judge David C. Godbey, found Healthcare Associates submitted 21,844 false claims and collected millions of dollars in overpayments.
According to the False Claims Act, as estimated in trial testimony, a minimum penalty for that number of false claims would be more than $304 million. One of the post-trial tasks for Godbey will be to decide on the penalty amount.
Robert Gifford of Johnston Clem Gifford was lead counsel for Taylor. Gifford said his client felt vindicated by the verdict. Taylor was fired by the clinic chain from her position as a finance officer when she raised concerns about the claims.
"She spent four or five years almost feeling like everybody's telling her she's wrong, when all she did was try to do the right thing," Gifford said.
A spokesman for Healthcare Associates, in a written statement, said, "HCAT complied with applicable Medicare billing rules and continues to provide...
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