Industry Note:
Feds Join Whistleblower Suit Filed By Former Hospice VP
Published on Thu Aug 30, 2012
Add one more whistleblower action to the list of lawsuits the feds have joined. U.S. District Judge Anne C. Conway has cleared the way for a Department of Justice request to intervene in a suit against Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based Hospice of the Comforter, reports the Orlando Sentinel.Last October, former Hospice of the Comforter VP of finance Douglas Stone filed a qui tam suit claiming he was fired after repeatedly urging hospice founder and CEO Robert Wilson and several board members to reimburse Medicare for billing for patients kept on service too long.Among the allegations in Stone's suit are that the hospice discharged a large number of long-stay patients after Medicare initiated medical review; the hospice served some patients as long as five years; Wilson had an incentive to keep on service as long as possible because more than half his pay came from bonuses based on the number of billable [...]