Home Health & Hospice Week

Industry Note:

Whistleblower Protests Settlement Amount In Court

Coming to an agreement with the feds to settle a whistleblower lawsuit may not be the end of the story.

Case in point: Former Hospice of the Comforter VP of finance Douglas Stone claims a $3 million settlement with the provider is a "travesty." Stone filed a whistleblower suit against the hospice in 2011, claiming hospice execs kept ineligible patients on service for long periods of time (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XXI, No. 31). Now he’s filed a legal brief in court to oppose the settlement amount between the hospice and the government.

Stone claims in his brief that the hospice’s profitability has been understated so the government would lower its fine. And, he claims, Adventist Health — the parent company of Florida Hospital and the current manager of the hospice — supplied the "tainted" financial information, according to the Orlando Sentinel. The motive, according to the brief, is that Adventist "will likely buy HOTC (valued at $30 to $50 million) for next to nothing the moment the ink is dry on the settlement agreement."

Hospice of the Comforter’s attorney tells the newspaper that hospice officials have provided the government with full "financial disclosure" and that the settlement was fair, the Sentinel reports.

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