Whistleblower News From The Inside — January 13, 2016

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team

Congress finds at least 25 outbreaks of deadly bacteria from dirty medical scopes – A Senate investigation reveals that there have been many more patients infected by duodenoscopes (used to look down a patient’s throat into the digestive tract) than previously reported – and the risks continue due to poor government oversight.  Los Angeles Times

Kindred Healthcare and subsidiary RehabCare settle False Claims Act lawsuit for $125 million – The payment will resolve allegations that the country’s largest nursing home therapy provider billed Medicare for unnecessary services.  Wall Street Journal

Whistleblower protection from reefer madness? – A Colorado paper has run an editorial calling for anti-retaliation protections for those reporting abuse of the state’s marijuana law.  Colorado Springs Gazette

Engineer alleges World Trade Center fraud – Magdy Youssef claims his former employers, Tishman Construction and Turner Construction, fraudulently billed the government for possibly millions of dollars in labor costs during the rebuilding of the WTC and for other projects across the country.  NBC 4

J&L Medical Services agrees to pay $600,000 to resolve whistleblower case – The company was accused of using unlicensed health care providers to treat Medicare and Medicaid patients with respiratory therapy services.  The Woodbury-Middlebury Patch