Whistleblower News From the Inside -- January 11, 2018
By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team
Dental Management Company Benevis and its Affiliated Kool Smiles Dental Clinics to Pay $23.9 Million to Settle False Claims Act Allegations Relating to Medically Unnecessary Pediatric Dental Services – The Justice Department announced today that it has settled False Claims Act allegations against dental management company Benevis LLC (formerly known as NCDR LLC) and more than 130 of its affiliated Kool Smiles dental clinics for which Benevis provides business management and administrative services. Under the agreement, Benevis and the Kool Smiles clinics will pay the United States and participating states a total of $23.9 million, plus interest, to resolve allegations that they knowingly submitted false claims for payment to state Medicaid programs for medically unnecessary dental services performed on children insured by Medicaid. DOJ
‘Creeping Stalinism’: secrecy law could imprison whistleblowers and journalists – Government whistleblowers and journalists who report on leaked information could face 20 years’ imprisonment if changes to Australia’s official secrecy laws pass parliament. The overhauled offence provisions, introduced to the House of Representatives in December just hours after marriage equality became law, form part of the Coalition government’s broader crackdown on treason, espionage and foreign interference. If passed, the reform will increase tenfold the maximum penalties for anyone communicating information potentially harmful to the national interest, where that information is obtained via a government official without authorisation. The Guardian
State sues mental health care company, alleging fraud in Medicaid billing, unlicensed staffers – Attorney General Maura Healey has sued a Brockton mental health care company, accusing it of providing services by unlicensed, unqualified, and unsupervised staff and fraudulently billing the state for tens of millions of dollars. The company, South Bay Community Services (formerly known as South Bay Mental Health) provided services to some 30,000 people on the Massachusetts Medicaid program for low-income residents, called MassHealth. Boston Globe