Alta Vista Healthcare and Wellness Center, LLC and its management company, Rockport Healthcare Services, have settled a kickback suit for $3.825 million. California and the United States alleged that the companies were enabling false claims to be submitted to Medicare and Medicaid by paying physicians kickbacks for patient referrals.

Case background

From 2009 to 2019, Alta Vista (under Rockport’s direction) allegedly gave expensive gifts to certain physicians, while separately paying them $2,500 to $4,000 monthly for their services as medical directors.

Gifts included fine dinners for the physicians and spouses, limousine rides, massages, gift cards worth up to $1,000, golf trips, e-readers and more. The state and federal government both accused Alta Vista and Rockport of giving these gifts to induce referrals to Alta Vista. In turn, this resulted in false claims to Medicare and California’s Medicaid programs, the latter of which is funded jointly by California and the federal government.

A whistleblower complaint was filed in 2015 under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act. The Act allows private citizens to bring a lawsuit on behalf of the government and to share in any proceeds recovered. The whistleblower received $581,094 as her share of the federal government’s recovery.

As part of the settlement, Alta Vista and Rockport agreed to enter into a five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement, among other compliance obligations. This is one of the latest efforts in the government’s attempt to crack down on healthcare fraud.

If you’ve been unfairly targeted or notice wrongdoing at your employment, you may be eligible to receive a whistleblower award. An experienced whistleblower attorney at Kardell Law Group can help—call today for a consultation.