False Claims Act Used To Recover Fraudulent Medicare Payments - - $1.5 Million

In cooperation with the Colorado U.S. Attorney's Office, our firm brought a False Claims Act action against PorterCare Adventist Health Systems (now a part of Centura Health Corporation) alleging that the company submitted fraudulent Medicare billings for respiratory services between 1994 and 1996. The suit alleged that Porter billed approximately $750,000 in false claims for services provided by Hospital Therapy Services, Inc. (HTS) at nursing homes in Denver and in the San Luis Valley in Colorado. HTS is a California company that managed an extended-care respiratory program for Porter.

John Parisi filed the False Claims Act case on behalf of Gary Norris, Julie Christensen, Lea Desmond, Shawn McGurran, Kelly Gruber, and Christie LeBrone, respiratory therapists who brought the billing violations to light. The suit alleged that Porter billed Medicare for respiratory therapy treat-

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Government contractors have submitted false claims for payment under government contracts since the founding of our country. To combat the problem, the Federal False Claims Act was passed in 1863, at the urging of President Abraham Lincoln, to stop the fraud being perpetrated on the Union Army effort by profiteers. A key component of the Act was private citizen enforcement - "whistle-blower" legislation. Private citizens were given an incentive to report fraud by allowing them to keep a portion of the monies recovered by the government under the "Qui Tam" provision of the Act. The future of private whistle-blower actions is currently before the United States Supreme Court on the issue of whether people ever have legal standing to file fraud claims on the government's behalf.

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