Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller is encouraging those with knowledge of fraud in the health care and pharmaceutical industries to come forward and act as whistleblowers, by reminding workers in those fields that they can collect a portion of the damages and simultaneously prevent further waste of tax dollars.
Zoeller cited as an example an ongoing case, which the State of Indiana joined in June of 2010, against the South Bend mental health services facility Madison Center. The State is alleging $10 million in overbilling to Medicaid through fraudulent claims. Zoeller points to the words of Jean Marie Thompson, a whistleblower in that case, who said, “Filing a case pursuant to the False Claims Act was a lifesaver. It is a path to take when all else fails.”
Phillips and Cohen attorney for the Madison case Colette Matzzie stated of Indiana’s decision to join the case that “The Attorney General is to be commended for his efforts to recoup the millions of dollars in Medicaid funds that Madison Center collected through a cynical scheme to warehouse Medicaid eligible children in full-day hospitalization programs by falsifying the medical necessity of such treatment then failing to provide it.”