During the week of February 7, the U.S. Department of Justice announced three False Claims Act settlements that each stemmed from qui tam whistleblower lawsuits. Two cases involve the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), while the other case originates from the healthcare field.
The qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act enables 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, if one occurs.
New Hampshire-based hospital Catholic Medical Center (CMC) will pay $3.8 million to resolve allegations of violating the False Claims Act’s Anti-Kickback Statute. The settlement resolves allegations brought by David Goldberg, M.D., in a whistleblower lawsuit. Goldberg is a former employee of CMC.
The settlement agreement states that the government alleged CMC “paid its own cardiologists to cover for, and to be available to provide medical services for, another cardiologist’s patients when she was on vacation or otherwise unavailable.” Allegedly, “CMC provided these call coverage services at no charge. The cardiologist who received the free call coverage referred millions of dollars in medical procedures and services to CMC over the decade in which the free services were provided.”
The press release states: “Because CMC submitted claims for payment to Medicare, Medicaid, and other...
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