Curative Health Services, Inc., which operated wound care centers in the hospital corporation HCA, Inc. (formerly Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation) and other hospitals nationwide, agreed to pay $16.5 million to settle allegations that it caused the hospitals to submit fraudulent cost reports to the government. The settlement resulted from qui tam lawsuits filed by Getnick Law in cooperation with a Florida law firm on behalf of two whistleblowers, one a former hospital Chief Financial Officer and the other a former hospital reimbursement manager. The whistleblowers received 19.5% of the recovery.
HCA reached a $4 million settlement with the Department of Justice arising from a related lawsuit brought by Getnick Law on behalf of a former hospital reimbursement manager alleging that HCA submitted claims to Medicare for a biological product whose safety and effectiveness had not been established and was not reimbursable. The settlement was part of a $631 million settlement with HCA. The government’s investigation into HCA involved more than 25 qui tam lawsuits, most of which were not pursued by the Department of Justice. Getnick Law’s client was one of eight whistleblowers whose cases were joined by the Department of Justice in reaching the settlement.
The national hospital chain Tenet Healthcare paid $175,000 to settle allegations that it falsely billed three times the legitimate charges for outpatient surgical pathology procedures. Although a small dollar recovery, this case, which was brought by Getnick Law on behalf of a Florida retiree who noticed the multiple billing on his own medical bills, exposed Tenet’s non-compliance with a government-imposed Corporate Integrity Agreement and put a stop to the overbilling of Medicare beneficiary co-payments and private-pay patients for the pathology procedures. The whistleblower received 21% of the recovery.