Los Angeles, CAThe federal government has settled a qui tam whistleblower lawsuit for $3.6 million against an Orange County, California-based medical services company.
The lawsuit claimed that National Cardio Labs, along with its manager Adrienne Stanman and her husband, Robert Parsons, defrauded health insurance carriers and Medicare by billing them for services it did not provide.
READ MORE QUI TAM WHISTLEBLOWER LEGAL NEWS
A biller at National Cardio Labs, James Cast, and a company technician, Stanton Crowley, originally filed the lawsuit in January 2004 under the False Claims Act. The two alleged that the company billed various entities for services it did not provide, including physician services, 24-hour cardiac attended monitoring and electrocardiograms. It was also alleged that National Cardio Labs billed for services for which it had already received payment and for services it could not perform.
The defendants in the lawsuit paid the government $2.3 million in May and agreed to allow the feds to keep $584,000 that was seized by the FBI. Now they must pay the balance of $720,000 before July 21.
A qui tam whistleblower lawsuit allows individuals who assist the prosecution to keep part of the penalty imposed against the defendant.
