A pair of former employees filed a whistleblower lawsuit against Healogics in 2014, which was only unsealed in October.

According to the Jacksonville Business Journal, Plaintiffs Michael C. and John M. worked at a Healogics clinic in Orlando, Florida. Their whistleblower lawsuit alleges that Healogics routinely pressured staff into performing unnecessary procedures and billing various government agencies for it.

According to allegations in the whistleblower lawsuit, Healogics had a document called a “superbill” at the core of various types of fraud. The superbill was a simple checklist of medical procedures placed in every patient’s chart. Allegedly, doctors working at Healogic were pressured to check off procedures on the superbill — even if the procedure was never performed.

The whistleblower lawsuit alleges that various government agencies were then billed for these procedures, including Medicare, Medicaid, and Tricare (military health insurance).

The whistleblower lawsuit alleges that Healogics aggressively pushed the idea of “team players,” clinic directors that would run their clinics “the Healogics way.” This allegedly included performing unnecessary procedures and recording that they performed nonexistent procedures—and billing them all to the government.

Additionally, it was alleged in whistleblower lawsuits against Healogics that the company pressured client hospitals to perform hyperbaric therapy on every Medicare patient presenting with a wound. In hyperbaric therapy, patients breath 100 percent oxygen (regular air has a mere 21 percent oxygen).

This can help healing by “supercharging” cells with extra oxygen. However, Medicare only covers hyperbaric therapy as a last resort, when a wound is not healing from first-line treatments. Whistleblower lawsuits allege that as many as half of the procedures performed were unnecessary.

If true, the allegations in the whistleblower lawsuit could quickly add up for Healogics. Medical fraud against a government agency has different penalties depending on the state.

The bulk of the Healogics companies named in the whistleblower lawsuit are located in Florida, which calls for a fine between $5,500 and $11,000 per each false claim made to the government.

Since more than 600 of Healogics’ approximately 800 clinics are named in the whistleblower lawsuit, and the superbill issue could involve multiple counts per patient, this could add up to a substantial fine

Healogics has contested the charges made in the whistleblower lawsuit, promising to fight the charges in a statement to the Business Journal. However, they have not yet answered specific questions posed by the press about the whistleblower lawsuit.

Prior to this and other whistleblower lawsuits, Healogics was seeing double digit growth and employed 3500 employees nationwide. The company provides oxygen chambers, support staff, and other medical equipment to client hospitals to help heal wounds.