Corporate Whistleblower Center Urges Dialysis Center Or Healthcare Insiders With Proof Of Kickbacks To MD's To Call Them About Rewards Because Of A Recent Huge Settlement
(PRWEB) November 11, 2014 -- The Corporate Whistleblower Center is urging employees of a dialysis center, an imaging center, a hospital director of business development, or a physician to call them if they have well documented proof of a healthcare facility providing kickbacks to medical doctors for patient referrals, because this type of information can produce potentially gigantic rewards.
The Center says, "We believe kickbacks for physician referrals are a huge problem nationwide, as evidenced by a recent settlement announced by the DOJ. As we would like to explain to a healthcare insider, or a medical doctor this type of information can produce potentially multi million dollar rewards." For more information, healthcare professionals are urged to contact the Corporate Whistleblower Center at 866-714-6466, if they possess proof of a healthcare company involved in giving medical doctors kickbacks in return for patient referrals. http://CorporateWhistleblowerCenter.Com
In October 2014 the Justice Department announced DaVita Healthcare Partners, Inc., one of the leading providers of dialysis services in the United States, has agreed to pay $350 million to resolve allegations it violated the False Claims Act by allegedly paying kickbacks to induce the referral of patients to its dialysis clinics. the Justice Department announced today. DaVita is headquartered in Denver, Colorado and has dialysis clinics in 46 states and the District of Columbia.
The government alleged that DaVita used a three part joint venture business model to induce patient referrals. Allegedly first, using information gathered from numerous sources, DaVita identified physicians or physician groups that had significant patient populations suffering renal disease within a specific geographic area.
Allegedly DaVita would then gather specific information about the physicians or physician group to determine if they would be a “winning practice.” Allegedly in one transaction, a physician’s group was considered a “winning practice” because the physicians were “young and in debt.” Based on this careful vetting process, DaVita knew and expected that many, if not most, of the physicians’ patients would be referred to the joint venture dialysis clinics.
Allegedly next, DaVita would then offer the targeted physician or physician group a lucrative opportunity to enter into a joint venture involving DaVita’s acquisition of an interest in dialysis clinics owned by the physicians, and/or DaVita’s sale of an interest in its dialysis clinics to the physicians.
Last, allegedly DaVita ensured future patient referrals through a series of secondary agreements with their physician partners. These included allegedly paying the physicians to serve as medical directors of the joint venture clinics, and allegedly entering into agreements in which the physicians agreed not to compete with the clinic.
According to the Department of Justice, the non-compete agreements were structured so that they bound all physicians in a practice group, even if some of the physicians were not part of the joint venture arrangements. These agreements also included provisions prohibiting the physician partners from inducing or advising a patient to seek treatment at a competing dialysis clinic. Allegedly these agreements were of such importance to DaVita that it would not conclude a joint venture transaction without them.
The Corporate Whistleblower Center says, "While the whistleblower's settlement has not yet been announced as part of this settlement, we expect it to be in the millions of dollars."
Simple rules for a whistleblower from the Corporate Whistleblower Center:
- Do not go to the government first if you are a major whistleblower. The Corporate Whistleblower Center says, “Major whistleblowers frequently go to the federal government thinking they will help. It’s a huge mistake.”
- Do not go to the news media with your whistleblower information. Public revelation of a whistleblower’s information could destroy any prospect for a reward.
- Do not try to force a government contractor or corporation to come clean to the government about their wrongdoing. The Corporate Whistleblower Center says, “Fraud is so rampant among federal contractors that any suggestion of exposure might result in an instant job termination, or harassment of the whistleblower. Come to us first, tell us what type of information you have, and if we think it’s sufficient, we will help find the right law firms to assist in advancing your information.”
The Corporate Whistleblower Center wants to emphasize there are high quality healthcare whistleblowers in every state including California, New York, Florida, Texas, Massachusetts, Maryland, Rhode Island, Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Missouri, Michigan, Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Washington, and Alaska.
Any type of insider or employee who possesses significant proof of their employer or a government contractor defrauding the federal government is encouraged to contact Corporate Whistleblower Center anytime at 866-714-6466 or via their web site at http://CorporateWhistleblowerCenter.Com
For attribution purposes please refer to the October 2014 Justice Department press release on this matter. http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/davita-pay-350-million-resolve-allegations-illegal-kickbacks
The lawsuit is captioned United States ex rel. David Barbetta v. DaVita, Inc. et al., No. 09-cv-02175-WJM-KMT (D. Colo.).
M Thomas Martin, America's Watchdog 6, http://CorporateWhistleblowerCenter.Com, +1 (866) 714-6466, [email protected]
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