Two plaintiffs represented by Davis and Sacramento law firms in a whistleblower lawsuit will share in a multimillion-dollar settlement that alleged their former employer — an online birth-control provider — engaged in fraudulent practices.
Cindy Swintelski Schwartz and Happy Baumann, who both worked as nurse practitioners for The Pill Club (formerly Favor), claimed the company knowingly defrauded government and private insurers by submitting false claims for contraceptive prescriptions and services.
Under the settlement agreement, announced Tuesday by the California Department of Justice and women’s lawyers, Michael Hirst of Davis’ Hirst Law Group and M. Anderson Berry of the Arnold Law Firm in Sacramento, The Pill Club will pay $15 million to the DOJ and $3.275 million to the California Department of Insurance.
For their roles, Schwartz and Baumann, along with their attorneys, will receive a shared $4.59 million whistleblower award.
“Ms. Schwartz and Ms. Baumann are being rewarded for their courage in reporting conduct that they knew was wrong and needed to be stopped,” Hirst said. “Women deserve safe and effective contraceptives provided with their best interests in mind, not the financial interests of a contraceptive prescriber and dispenser. By blowing the whistle, Ms. Baumann and Ms. Schwartz have saved public and private insurers millions of dollars.”
Added Berry: “Ms. Baumann and Ms. Schwartz stood up for what is right. I hope more medical professionals in this...
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