Francine and Rhea Did the Right Thing
November 10, 2006 by bob
As part of a 1998 settlement, Francine Mettevelis and Rhea Jones received $903,899 for reporting that Charter Behavioral Health Systems, in Orlando, Florida, billed Medicare for medically unnecessary psychiatric care for elderly patients with severe dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease and other organic brain disorders.
Medicare fraud, where doctors, HMO’s, or hospitals create frauludent items on patient invoices and submit them to Medicare for reimbursement, is a growing problem, and contributes to the enormous and rising costs of health care in this country. It is important for patients, family, and friends of people who use these services to report cases of suspected fraud.
If you’ve witnessed Medicare fraud in your workplace, you may be able to receive up to one-third of the money recovered in the fraud case under the Federal False Claims Act. And, you can sleep soundly at night, knowing that you did the right thing, and that you are helping lower health care costs for everyone by reporting the fraud to the people.
We can help you if you’ve witnessed this type of activity – contact us to receive information about what you can do to help stop these abuses.
Anonymous Hero Gets Fair Share Of $140 Million
November 5, 2006 by bob
As part of a $140 million civil settlement with Health Care Service Corporation, a private plaintiff was paid more than $21 million for exposing that this Medicare carrier had submitted false information to the Health Care Financing Administration, failed to process claims in accordance with HCFA’s guidelines, and failed to process correspondence and reviews in a timely manner.
This private plaintiff, who preferred to remain anonymous through what must have been a very lengthy and stressful ordeal, helped stop these abuses of the health care system, saving U.S. taxpayers millions of dollars. And, because the Federal False Claims Act stipulates that whistleblowers who catch large companies or individuals red-handed in the act of defrauding the government should be rewarded by up to 30% of the total amount awarded, this anonymous hero walked away with over twenty million dollars.
