On June 20, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia announced that a chain of urgent healthcare providers in Georgia agreed to pay $1.6 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act (FCA) for improperly charging Medicare for the testing and treatment of patients with exposure to COVID-19.
Former employees of CRH Healthcare, LLC, who were not publicly named, filed a civil suit under the qui tam provision of the FCA. Qui tam claims enable private citizens to file lawsuits on behalf of the government if they know of an individual or company defrauding the government. Qui tam whistleblowers are eligible to receive between 15 and 30% of the government’s recovery. The unnamed whistleblowers will share in $320,000 from the settlement in this matter.
“The FBI is thankful for the honesty of the whistleblowers who stepped forward to identify this alleged fraud,” said Keri Farley, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. “The FBI and our law enforcement partners will continue to pursue reports of medical facilities filing false or misleading claims, choices that ultimately rob our citizens.”
The investigation into CRH Healthcare, LLC and Peachtree Immediate Care FP, LLC was part of a joint effort by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General and the FBI. In 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to specifically tackle pandemic related fraud. The government...
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