The Brattleboro Memorial Hospital will $1,655,000 to the United States and the state of Vermont to settle claims that it “knowingly” presented “false claims for payment to Medicare and Medicaid.” The U.S. Attorney’s Office alleged that between January 2012 through September 2014, “BMH knowingly submitted or caused to be submitted a number of outpatient laboratory claims lacking documentation necessary to support reimbursement by Medicare and Medicaid.” According to a press release, a whistleblower Amy Beth Main filed a complaint against the hospital under the federal False Claims Act. Qui tam lawsuits are a type of whistleblower lawsuit that rewards whistleblowers in successful cases where the government recovers funds lost to fraud. According to Norman Watts, of Watts Law Firm, in Woodstock, Main will receive between 15 and 20 percent of the settlement, from which he will recover his attorney fees. Ms. Main worked for the hospital in an administrative role in the financial services department.
The case was investigated by the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont, with assistance from the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, and by the Medicaid Fraud and Residential Abuse Unit of the Vermont Attorney General’s Office.
