A Florida doctor is expected to pay $4 million in a False Claims Act lawsuit alleging he had a habit of double billing Medicare. The doctor, who is one of the leading parathyroid surgeons today, allegedly filed double the charges with Medicare than were necessary.

The settlement agreement, while a hefty price tag, does not actually determine liability in these claims, and instead settles them before they can reach that point. The settlement agreement was announced by the Department of Justice.

The doctor involved in the lawsuit over double billing Medicare, Dr. James Norman, owned and operated a center for parathyroid surgery called the Norman Parathyroid Center.

According to the lawsuit, Dr. Norman was systematically double billing Medicare between April 2008 and December 2016, submitting claims to multiple agencies for the same pre-operative examinations that were also covered in the bills for the surgeries themselves. He would often be knowingly double billing Medicare for fees of $150 to $1,750, depending on the residential status of a patient.

While this False Claims Act lawsuit was litigated by the Department of Justice, the case was originally brought to the DOJ’s attention by a whistleblower lawsuit filed back in April 2014 by one of Dr. Norman’s parathyroid patients, Myra G., along with her husband. The whistleblower lawsuit wasn’t fully handed over to the DOJ until just recently, when it announced its intention to settle the case.

On top of the settlement amount itself, at a significant $4 million, the agreement also included an “integrity statement” that the doctor would voluntarily enter into with the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“Physicians who systematically overbill federal health care programs and their vulnerable patients will be held responsible for this fraudulent behavior,” said the Special Agent in Charge Shimon R. Richmond from the Office of the Inspector General. “Those who engage in such schemes can expect a thorough investigation and strong remedial measures such as those in the integrity agreement we signed with Dr. Norman.”

The whistleblowers who originally filed the lawsuit in 2014, bringing it to the attention of the Department of Justice, will be awarded $600,000 for their role.

Filing a Whistleblower Lawsuit

Whistleblowers are those who report the fraud and illegal activities against the government of their current or former employers, including this double billing Medicare case. Many employees choose to come forward as whistleblowers because they do not feel right about their employer’s actions.

A whistleblower lawsuit can be filed by an employee while working at the company, but can also be filed after having left the company. While a person considering becoming a whistleblower may be worried that they will face retaliation for their actions, the whistleblower is typically given a substantial reward—often between 15 and 30 percent of the money recovered in the subsequent whistleblower lawsuit. In this instance, the whistleblowers were awarded exactly 15 percent of the total settlement amount.

If you believe you have witnessed some kind of fraud by your current or former employer such as a doctor double billing Medicare, you may be able to file a whistleblower lawsuit (sometimes known as a qui tam lawsuit) against your employer on behalf of the government.