In a new Medicare billing fraud settlement, a radiation center has agreed to pay $3 million to settle claims that it submitted fraudulent bills to the government for services.

Valley Tumor Medical Group, based in Lancaster, California, recently paid $2,865,693 to the United States and $134,307 to the State of California in a Medicare billing fraud lawsuit. It is claimed that the medical group submitted false claims to Medicare, Medi-Cal and TRICARE over a ten-year period.

This Medicare billing fraud lawsuit claims that radiation therapists from Valley Tumor administered radiation treatments when there was not a doctor on site at the medical center. This is against federal regulations, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. In addition, the Medicare billing fraud lawsuit alleges that the center presented false claims to the three government medical programs with full knowledge that it was doing so.

Even though Valley Tumor agreed to the $3 million settlement, the company is not required to admit any liability.

The named plaintiff in the Medicare billing fraud case, Jared Schindler, is a former employee of Valley Tumor Medical Center. He received $555,000 in the award.

He filed this case as a qui tam, or whistleblower, lawsuit. Under the False Claims Act, employees and former employees of a business are protected from retaliation from the reported business following a whistleblower action.

The False Claims Act also allows private citizens to bring a whistleblower lawsuit on the behalf of the government against a business that is dealing unfairly. Most of the time, these are former or current employees that have inside information regarding the practices of that business.

In this Medicare billing fraud lawsuit, Schindler had inside information about the billing practices of Valley Tumor Medical Center because he was an employee.

The False Claims Act also holds a named business responsible to pay to the claimant any relief necessary to make whole any employee who is discharged, demoted, harassed, or otherwise discriminated against because of their lawful participation in a qui tam lawsuit.

This “relief” can come in the form of compensation for court costs and attorney’s fees. The whistleblower may also be eligible to be reinstated to their old employment position and twice the amount of pay they would have received if they had retained their position.

The person who brings the qui tam lawsuit is also eligible to receive 15 and 25 percent of the amount of money recovered from any resulting settlement or judgment, as well as attorney’s fees and court costs.

If you believe you may have information about Medicare billing fraud, it may be beneficial to speak with a Medicare billing fraud attorney.