Lebau & Neuworth has a very active False Claims Act practice, representing whistleblowers who seek to hold companies accountable for ripping off the federal government. Our whistleblowers are often employees (executives, scientists, academicians, and workers of all types) who have suffered adverse employment actions because of reporting their employers’ fraud on the federal government. Bloomberg News recently ran an article about the rise of fraud committed by for-profit nursing homes. The numbers are staggering, as reported:
A report by federal health care inspectors in November said the U.S. nursing home industry overbills Medicare $1.5 billion a year for treatments patients don’t need or never receive.
Not disclosed was how much worse it is when providers have a profit motive. Thirty per cent of claims sampled from for-profit homes were deemed improper, compared to just 12 percent from non-profits, according to data Bloomberg News obtained from the inspector general’s office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services via a Freedom of Information Act request.
The figures add to the case - advanced by health care researchers and Medicare overseers in at least six government and academic studies in the last three years - that the rise of for-profit providers is fueling waste, fraud and patient harm in the $2.8 trillion U.S health care sector. At nursing homes, 78 percent of $105 billion in revenues went to for-profits in 2010, up from 72 percent in 2002, according to the latest available government breakdownsHelp us stop the fraud! If you possess information on such fraudulent abuses, contact us. The False Claims Act provides for significant protection and possible recoveries for whistleblowers.
