The Office of Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announced on June 21 that Pathways of Massachusetts, which was an “outpatient behavioral health provider,” and its former corporate parent Molina Healthcare, Inc., will pay $4.6 million to resolve allegations of False Claims Act violations. Four whistleblowers spurred the case with a qui tam lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts, U.S. ex rel. Collins, et al. V. Molina Healthcare, Inc., et al.
The qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act 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, if one occurs.
The whistleblowers, who were all former employees at Pathways and worked there between 2014 and 2018, alleged in their lawsuit “that Pathways violated the False Claims Act because its clinics lacked adequate staffing to qualify as eligible mental health centers.”