On August 28, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington announced that Lincare Holdings, Inc. agreed to pay $29 million to settle charges that it violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by overbilling Medicare and Medicare Advantage Plans for oxygen equipment. The settlement is the largest-ever health care fraud settlement in the Eastern District of Washington.
The settlement stems from a qui tam whistleblower suit filed by two former Lincare employees. The False Claims Act’s qui tam provisions enable private citizens to file lawsuits on behalf of the government if they know of an individual or company defrauding the government. Qui tam whistleblowers are eligible to receive between 15 and 30% of the government’s recovery. In this settlement, the whistleblowers are set to receive $5,655,000.