Hero nurse whistleblower reveals dialysis Medicare fraud leading to $7.3 million repayment

Laura Davis, a registered nurse who worked at the Dialysis Corporation of America observed that the company was over billing Medicare for injections of Epogen, a drug used to increase the red blood cell counts of kidney dialysis patients who are anemic. This week, the company agreed to pay the government $7.3 million to settle the whistleblower lawsuit filed under the False Claims Act (FCA). At first, Nurse Davis raised her concerns about DCA’s billing practices for Epogen internally but no one listened to her. The False Claims Act allows private citizens to sue companies that are defrauding the government as a way to recover funds on the government’s behalf. The law rewards whistleblowers with 15-25% of the recovery. The amount of Medicare fraud committed against the U.S. government is thought to be in the billions each year. Jeffrey Newman represents whistleblowers.