February 13, 2015 — The False Claims Act empowers health care insiders to file a whistleblower lawsuit on the government’s behalf. Courageous whistleblowers help to protect the integrity of our federal healthcare programs, like Medicare or Medicaid, for those who need them. Under the Act, the United States may choose to intervene in the lawsuit and take primary control for litigating it. The statute provides for the government’s recovery of three times the actual damages plus civil penalties. For their willingness to notify the government, tipsters — also referred to as “relators” — are rewarded with a portion of the government’s recovery.
Former Owner of Florida Home Health Business Filed Phony Claims for Reimbursement to Medicare for Services Never Provided
A federal judge has sentenced Ramon Regueira, who owned and operated a Miami home health care business, for his role in a $30 million Medicare fraud scheme. As part of his sentence, Regueira was reportedly ordered to pay $21 million in restitution.
Regueira was a partial owner of Nation’s Best Care Home Health Corp. (Nation’s Best), which allegedly supplied therapy and home health services for housebound Medicare beneficiaries. In reality, Regueira admitted, the real purpose for the home health care company’s existence was to bill Medicare for expensive services that were neither necessary nor provided. Between January 2007 and January 2011, Medicare paid Nation’s Best $21 million to reimburse fraudulent claims for therapy and other home healthcare services.
To carry out the scam, Regueira and his co-conspirators used patient recruiters who supplied Nation’s Best with patients, certifications for unnecessary services and prescriptions. In exchange, Regueira compensated the recruiters with kickbacks and bribe payments. Regueira and his co-conspirators used the documents and patient information provided by the recruiters to concoct phony bills for submission to Medicare.
Contact Us to File a False Claims Act Lawsuit Targeting Abuse By Medical Providers
While Waters & Kraus is not handling this particular False Claims Act case, we are representing whistleblowers in similar lawsuits. If you have comparable claims against a different medical provider, contact us by email or call our qui tam attorneys at 855.784.0268 to learn more about our practice and how we can work together to notify the government about fraudulent abuses of government-funded programs. Michael Armitage and Gary Paul, two of the firm’s qui tam attorneys in the Southern California office, protect tipsters throughout the whistleblower lawsuit process.
