Three whistleblowers who helped the US government prosecute a health-care fraud claim against Steward Health Care System LLC and other defendants that settled in June 2022 will receive attorneys’ fees, but only 12.5% of their $1.3 million request.
Steward agreed to pay $4.7 million and admit that it failed to charge proper rent on leases it had with physicians and physician groups, which may have violated the Anti-Kickback statute, in order to resolve the suit.
Counsel for the three False Claims Act whistleblowers told a Massachusetts federal district court they were entitled to $1.3 million even though the government intervened and settled only one of eight claims in the complaint.
But Steward demonstrated that “one eighth of fees and costs, representing one intervened claim of the eight claims asserted, is a fair proxy for the exclusion of the declined claims,” Judge Richard G. Stearns of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts said.
There’s no evidence that the intervened claim had significantly more intricate or complex facts, or required more legal research, than the claims the government declined, the court said in the Oct. 11 order.
There’s only “minimal overlap” between the intervened and the declined claims, the court said.
Stephen Zappala, Olivia Lanna, and Eric Wojcik sued in 2018. The government intervened in in 2022 for purposes of settlement.
Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC and Arrowood LLP represent the whistleblowers. McDermott Will...
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