MISSOULA, Mont. —
A federal jury ruled Wednesday that a health clinic in a Montana town where hundreds of people have died from asbestos exposure submitted 337 false asbestos claims that made patients eligible for Medicare and other benefits they shouldn't have received.
The seven-person jury said that the fraudulent claims caused more than $1 million in damage to the government.
The case focused on the Center for Asbestos Related Disease in Libby, Montana. BNSF Railway filed a lawsuit against the clinic under the federal False Claims Act in 2019.
The railroad company owned by billionaire Warren Buffett is also a defendant in numerous lawsuits over its own role in the town's contamination. In 2020, Montana's Supreme Court found BNSF liable for shipping asbestos-tainted vermiculite from a nearby mine through Libby.
The clinic and its high-profile doctor, Brad Black, have been at the forefront of efforts to help residents of the town, which came to national prominence when it was declared a deadly Superfund site two decades ago.
The jury's finding leaves the clinic subject to additional penalties. Under the False Claims Act, the railway could be eligible for 15% to 25% of any amount recovered by the government.
CARD and its attorneys had denied it made false medical claims on behalf of patients, arguing its diagnoses were in line with requirements of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which included special provisions for the Libby victims.
"CARD was doing exactly what the law...
WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s years-long campaign to undermine faith in U.S. elections has gained broad traction with the American public, a Reuters/Ipsos poll shows, p...