Corporate Practice

Emergency Physician Billing Company Pays $15 Million

As part of a whistleblower lawsuit filed by a former vice-president, Gottlieb Financial Services (GFS), a Florida-based emergency physician company, and its Georgia-based owner, Medaphis Physician Services Corporation, agreed to pay the federal government and 35 states a total of $15 million to settle allegations that the companies submitted false claims to Medicare, Mecicaid, TRICARE, and the Federal Employees Health Beneifts Program.

According to David Ogden, acting assistant attorney at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Michigan, the case centered on GFS allegedly upcoding claims on behalf of emergency physicians nationwide, as well as for allegedly billing for services made to look more extensive than they actually were. Greg Robinson, the qui tam relator and former vice-president of Physicians Billing Services, which was acquired by GFS, filed the lawsuit in Grand Rapids, MI, after he was terminated as CFO. Robinson will receive close to $2.5 million as part of the settlement, Ogden said.