CALL US TOLL FREE FOR HELP: 1-800-632-1404

We are attorneys that investigate False Claims Act cases nationwide, including in the state of New Jersey for Medicare fraud, tax fraud, contractor fraud and more against a range of employers including healthcare providers, medical device companies, defense contractors, and pharmaceutical companies. We stand ready to provide a free case evaluation to you; please call us today.

False Claims Act Attorney Discusses Florida Criminal Fraud Case

As False Claims lawyers we wanted to bring your attention to a Qui Tam whistle blower criminal suit.  The facts of that case are as follows:

The issue that I wanted to bring to your attention is that four were recently sentenced to prison in a Florida community mental health center case.  The case involved a Miami area assisted living facility and an affiliated psychologist who were sentenced to prison in connection with a healthcare fraud scheme involving the now defunct Miami area health provider Healthcare Solutions Network, Inc. in which Medicare was billed for mental health treatments that were unnecessary or not provided.  If you have any relevant knowledge concerning mental health treatments that were unnecessary or not provided, please contact us.

U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga sentenced Serena Jocelyn, age 32, of Luneville, West Virginia to 63 months in prison.  Other individuals were also sentenced to 28 months in prison.  According to court documents, Healthcare Solutions Network, Inc. operated community mental health centers both in Miami and in North Carolina including partial hospitalization programs, a form of intensive treatment for severe mental illness.  The company obtained Medicare beneficiaries to attend the clinic for purported partial hospitalization program treatment that was unnecessary and in many instances not even provided.

In the Miami area, the company obtained beneficiaries by paying kickbacks to owners and operators of assisted living facilities or otherwise recruiting them from facilities and from nursing homes.  According to court documents, assisting living facility residents referred to the facility were not qualified to be placed in partial hospitalization programs.  Moreover, some of these residents were only selected because they had Medicare or State of Florida Medicaid benefits.  In other cases, the assisted living facility patients suffered from dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, or mental retardation and were otherwise unable to benefit from mental health services.

If you know of a mental health care facility that is receiving funds for those persons that were diagnosed with dementia, Alzheimer’s disease or mental retardation, there may be a false claim.

Additional allegations are that an employee named Jocelyn, a licensed psychologist, was hired by the company in North Carolina in April of 2010 as a clinic coordinator and later promoted to clinical director.  She allegedly conspired with other employees to fabricate medical documents to substantiate alleged PHP treatment that was medically unnecessary and in many instances not even provided to the beneficiaries.  She admitted that patients were unqualified for the program because they suffered from conditions such as retardation and dementia and that she directed therapists to fabricate medical records to support the fraudulent billing.  According to court documents, from 2004 to 2011, HCS billed Medicare and the Florida Medicaid program approximately $63,000.00 for purported mental health services.

Again, if you have any information concerning fraudulent medical care provided to recipients of Medicare or Tenncare or any other Medicaid based program, please contact us as soon as possible for a confidential evaluation.

 

If you are an employee of a city or state and know of similar conduct, we invite you to contact us for a confidential brief case evaluation.  We stand ready to discuss the specific facts of your case with you concerning a false claims act case.

THE SCOPE OF FRAUD

Amazingly, some estimates have suggested that approximately 10% of the entire annual United States budget is lost to companies or individuals who are defrauding the government. The United States Federal budget for 2010 was $3.456 billion, meaning around $345.6 million was wrongfully wasted on fraud.

The entities defrauding the government do so in a variety of ways: Medicare or Medicaid fraud whereby they bill the government for services which they never provided or overbill for services that were provided; SEC Trading; Tax Fraud; TARP Fraud; Military/Defense contract fraud; Pharmaceutical Manufacturing;contract fraud involving any number of large government spending programs; or other types public benefit fraud.

HELPING THE PUBLIC.

As a whistleblower attorney, we are interested in speaking with persons willing to make known the truth about company practices and are willing to file a qui tam or whistleblower action. One area in particular we are interested in discussing are lawsuits involving medical device companies where the company is alleged to have overcharged, engaged in kickback programs, and the like. We will nevertheless investigate claims in a variety of areas.

Workers and persons all across the country witness actions at their work that may be unlawful or even corrupt. Unfortunately, some employees and workers feel that they will be fired, terminated, harrassed or punished if they report an unlawful or corrupt action. These reporters, however, are protected by the law as a Whistleblower and can receive compensation because of the False Claims Act or the Medicaid False Claims Act. If you have reported actions that may be fraudulent, then you should talk to a Whistleblower or qui tam lawyer about your facts.

Whistleblowers help the government to get back billions of dollars each year with the help of the False Claims Act. In fact, fraudulent Medicaid claims are also caught by whistleblowers having the Medicaid False Claims Act on their side. If you report a false claim or fraudulent action to the government, then the government will give you, the whistleblower, a part of the money that gets recovered. This is because of qui tam requirements. Qui Tam means that a person files a lawsuit for the king and also for him or herself. The phrase is qui tam pro domino rege quam pro se ipso in hac parte sequitur, or, “he who sues for the king as well for himself.”

These requirements and lawsuits were made popular during the Civil War when many people were getting away with fraudulent actions against the government. In 1986, the False Claims Act was amended to raise the total compensation given to people who reported fraudulent actions, or whistleblowers. If a whistleblower works with a lawyer then it may be possible for them to get three times the amount the government would get in damages and also get additional compensation for general fines.

TYPES OF CASES

The most common situations that could form the basis of a Qui Tam action include:

• Submitting a false or fraudulent record, bill or statement to the government in order to fraudulently obtain money such as reporting a medical service that was never performed for Medicare or Medicad;
• Conspiring with a third party to submit or present have a false or fraudulent claim to the government;
• Withholding property of the government with the intent to defraud or conceal the property from the government;
• Fraudulently buying property of the government from someone not authorized to sell that property; and
• Making a false statement to fraudulently avoid paying money to the government or to avoid delivering property to the government.

FOR HELP, PLEASE CONTACT US.

We help whistleblowers on a contingency basis, meaning there is no fee charged for our work unless there is a recovery. We also front any and all expenses. No matter where you are located — we will represent you. We will come to you, you will not have to come to us.

Attorneys in our firm and attorneys that we work with on Whistleblower, Qui Tam, False Claims Act cases have represented a host of persons making claims, for violations of federal tax law, Medicare law and more.

For more information, please contact our team of whitsleblower and qui tam attorneys today.

CALL 1-800-632-1404

or fill out this form below for a free initial consultation.