Dive Brief:
- On Monday, DaVita Healthcare Partners announced it will pay up to $495 million to settle a whistleblower suit involving alleged Medicare fraud.
- This is DaVita's third whistleblower settlement since 2012; all together, the company has paid out more then $1 billion.
- DaVita also announced its first-quarter results on Monday, revealing a net loss of $111 million.
Dive Insight:
The civil suit, which was filed by two DaVita employees who stand to profit by up to $135 million, alleged that between 2003 and 2012, DaVita was throwing out good medicine and then billing Medicare and Medicaid for it.
The case was originally filed with the federal government in 2007, but the government declined to join the lawsuit after two years of investigation. It was filed again in civil court under the False Claims Act in 2011.