May 10, 2018

South Carolina Ambulance Company Settles False Claims Allegations for $800,000

Editor’s note: Here’s an interesting blog post from our archives that we thought was worth sharing again. The False Claims Act has enabled whistleblowers to expose fraudulent healthcare fiscal violations, while getting financial rewards for their efforts. We feel this is justice being served indeed.

The Williston Rescue Squad Inc., (Williston Rescue) located in Williston, South Carolina recently settled allegations under a False Claims qui tam action that it provided medically unnecessary ambulance transports to Medicare beneficiaries.  Under Medicare regulations ambulance companies are only reimbursed for non-emergency transportation services if the patient is confined to bed or has a medical condition such that any other form of transportation, such as a van, would endanger the patient’s health.

Sandra McKee filed the qui tam action under the provisions of the False Claims Act.  McKee is a clinical social worker at a health care facility that routinely works with patients transported by Williston Rescue. The $800,000 settlement resolved the allegations that Williston Rescue submitted claims for reimbursement to Medicare for routine, non-emergency transportation services that were not medically necessary and that the company created false documents to make the transports appear to meet the Medicare requirements for such services.

McKee will receive $160,000 as her share of the recovery under the False Claims Act’s provision for bringing this fraud to the government’s attention.

Interested in learning more about the False Claims Act and the rights of whistleblowers in exposing False Claims Act violations? Please visit our Qui Tam FAQs page to get more information that can prove beneficial should you decide to pursue a legal case as a whistleblower. Berg & Androphy has an entire practice area dedicated to representing whistleblowers in False Claims Act cases.