In an article published on January 3, 2025, by Law360, Veronica Nannis was quoted about JGL’s representation of Thomas Fischer, the former chief financial officer of Community Health Network, who filed a False Claims Act (FCA) case on behalf of the United States and the State of Indiana more than ten years ago. Fischer recently settled the remaining claims, which included both non-intervened FCA claims and Fischer’s employment related claims. JGL was lead counsel for Fischer on the FCA claims.
The $135 million FCA settlement, which was reached in December 2024, ends the federal healthcare fraud claims brought by Fischer, a whistleblower, or “relator” under the FCA, who filed suit on behalf of the governments based on detailed insider knowledge of fraud. Notably, the deal was reached a year after the Indiana healthcare system agreed to pay $345 million to settle FCA allegations from the government in a qui tam action in December 2023. Community Health also paid $20.3 million in 2015 to resolve civil allegations that it submitted false claims to Medicare and Medicaid programs. Taken together, Community Health has now paid more than half a billion dollars in three False Claims Act settlements in the last decade.
Veronica Nannis, who represented Fischer, in addition to JGL attorneys Jay Holland, Steven Pavsner and Virginia Grimm, said the $135 million settlement is a testament to the nature of the FCA, which allows private individuals to file suit on behalf of the government. “It shows the genius of the FCA — allowing the government to focus on some of the claims while the relator takes the laboring oar on the other claims. This is often the best way to ensure maximum recovery for the taxpayer.”
This settlement resolves claims brought by Fischer on behalf of the governments after the governments declined to intervene. Fischer alleged that Community Health overpaid employed physicians, as well as those who worked for an independent oncology group that contracted exclusively with Community Health, and that the excessive payments were made to ensure that the physicians sent their patients to Community Health facilities – a violation of federal and state laws, including the Stark Law – which prohibit payments of any kind to physicians to influence where they treat or refer patients. Fischer also alleged that Community Health paid above-fair market value rent to a physician-owned real estate partnership to induce the physician owners to refer patients to a Community Health owned ambulatory surgical center in violation of the Anti-kickback Statute.
Continue reading the Law360 article “Hospital Org Inks $135M Deal To End Ex-CFO’s Fraud Claims.”
