DOCTOR WINS LAWSUIT RELATED TO WHISTLEBLOWER CASE AGAINST MERCY HEALTH
Today, the Cincinnati Business Courier reported a Northern Kentucky doctor who also practiced in Ohio was awarded almost $200,000 in a contract dispute case against Millennium Radiology. Physicians and other medical providers are challenged with contract and payment disputes in Ohio. "The Hamilton County court case was filed against Millennium because it failed to pay the doctor money he was owed between the years 2007 and 2011."
The payment dispute is minimal in comparison with whistleblower/ qui tam case. The doctor is involved in a much larger whistleblower claim against Mercy Health. "The whistleblower suit filed in federal court in Cincinnati in 2011 claims that officials with Mercy Health's now-closed hospitals in Westwood and Mount Airy colluded with officials at Millennium Radiology in making about 400,000 false claims to federal health care programs for reimbursement."
The law suit is seeking more than $4 billion in damages. If a jury rules in favor, the majority of the funds will payback the federal health care programs that paid the false claims. The person who "blows the whistle" on the fraud, in this case the doctor, could be entitled up to 30% of the damages awarded to the federal government. The physician worked for Milleddium Radiology and had first hand information of the allegedly fraudulant claims. For the full article, visit www.bizjournals.com.
Other medical false claim act cases may involve:
- Inflating costs related to patient care
- Seeking reimbursement for costs not related to in-patient care
- Failing to disclose the nature or the relationship between business entities with whom provide is dealing
- Manipulating statistics to increase payments
- Failure to report over-payments
- Inappropriate coding
- Inappropriate hospital admissions
If you are in the medical field and have inside knowledge to fraudulent billing practices to federal health programs, call our Ohio whistleblower attorney to discuss a potential claim.
OSHA's Whistleblower Protection Program enforces the whistleblower provisions of more than twenty whistleblower statutes protecting employees who report violations of various workplace safety, airline, commercial motor carrier, consumer product, environmental, financial reform, food safety, health insurance reform, motor vehicle safety, nuclear, pipeline, public transportation agency, railroad, maritime, and securities laws. Rights afforded by these whistleblower acts include, but are not limited to, worker participation in safety and health activities, reporting a work related injury, illness or fatality, or reporting a violation of the statutes.
