National Health Care settles qui tam suit.Suit alleged misallocation of nursing services NATIONAL HEALTH CARE (NHC NHC National Hurricane Center NHC Naval Historical Center NHC National Housing Conference NHC National Hurricane Conference NHC National Healthcare Corporation NHC No Homers Club (Simpsons cartoon) ), BASED IN Murfreesboro, Tenn., has settled a qui tam QUI TAM, remedies. Who as well. When a statute imposes a penalty, for the doing or not doing an act, and gives that penalty in part to whosoever will sue for the same, and the other part to the commonwealth, or some charitable, literary, or other institution, and makes it recoverable by lawsuit filed in the District Court of Florida for just over $17.4 million. The suit alleged that NHC submitted cost reports misallocating routine nursing services between Medicare and other payors. "Although NHC's filings for every year had been reviewed by auditors for the government's Fiscal Intermediaries as well as NHC's internal auditors, a new cost allocation standard was retroactively required by the government," said NHC President W. Andrew Adams Andrew Adams may refer to:
Qui tam is a "whistleblower whis·tle·blow·er or whis·tle-blow·er or whistle blower n. One who reveals wrongdoing within an organization to the public or to those in positions of authority: "The Pentagon's most famous whistleblower is . . " provision of the Federal Civil False Claims Act. It allows a private citizen to file a suit in the name of the U.S. government charging fraud by government contractors or others who receive or use government funds. The person bringing the qui tam action qui tam action (kwee tam) n. Latin for who as well, a lawsuit brought by a private citizen (popularly called a "whistle blower") against a person or company who is believed to have violated the law in the performance of a contract with the government or in violation shares in any money recovered. "This action was brought by a former employee," says NHC Vice President Gerald Coggin. "The person was with us less than 90 days." NHC, the government, and the original plaintiff have settled for a net amount of $17.4 million. The total settlement in the NBC NBC in full National Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. commercial broadcasting company. It was formed in 1926 by RCA Corp., General Electric Co. (GE), and Westinghouse and was the first U.S. company to operate a broadcast network. case was $27 million less a credit of about $9.3 million for monies that NHC's self-audit process disclosed were owed by the government to NHC. The settlement, which contains no fines or penalties, is repayable over five years at 6 percent interest, with no interest during the first six months. "It's really a pretty benign settlement," says Coggin, adding that the amount had been held in reserve and will not adversely affect the company's reported earnings. The settlement may be further reduced by future credits resulting from the filing of Routine Cost Limit Exception Reports for the years 1997 and 1998. |
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