Matthew Smith manages and assists with the development of potential new whistleblower cases for Phillips & Cohen.
Mr. Smith was an important part of the Phillips & Cohen teams that achieved significant settlements in many qui tam (whistleblower) cases, including those against:
- Healthcare giant HCA – $881 million global settlement that covered two Phillips & Cohen qui tam cases alleging Medicare billing fraud.
- Wall Street investment guru Mario Gabelli and his associates – $130 million settlement of a qui tam case alleging fraud involving federal auctions for certain telecom licenses.
- Medtronic Spine LLC – $75 million settlement. The whistleblower complaint alleged Kyphon Inc. (later acquired by Medtronic) persuaded doctors and hospitals to keep patients overnight to increase Medicare reimbursements for a minimally invasive spinal surgery using devices Kyphon sold. The procedure, known as kyphoplasty, generally could have been done on an outpatient basis.
- Over 100 hospitals nationwide – The settlements totaled more than $105 million. The whistleblower and government alleged inappropriate hospital admissions for patients undergoing a kyphoplasty procedure.
- Harris County Hospital District (Houston, Texas) – The hospital paid $15.5 million to settle allegations that it violated Medicare secondary payer provisions by billing Medicare and Medicaid for treating certain patients when it should have billed private insurers instead.
- Kos Pharmaceuticals – The New Jersey-based drugmaker paid $14 million to settle allegations that it engaged in off-label marketing of its prescription drug Advicor and paid kickbacks to boost sales of Advicor and Niaspan.
- Oracle – The tech company paid $8 million to settle a qui tam lawsuit that claimed the company charged the government for computer training that was never provided.
Mr. Smith graduated from Gonzaga University School of Law, where he served as president of the Student Bar Association and as student delegate to the American Bar Association. While in law school, he interned at the Torts Division of the Washington State Attorney General’s Office.
Mr. Smith is admitted to the bar in Washington, DC.