Rabin Kammerer Johnson Announces $1.1 Million Qui Tam Settlement

Rabin Kammerer Johnson announces the settlement of a qui tam case against Florida Pain Medicine Associates, Inc. and its owners Dr. Bart Gatz, Dr. Alexis Renta and Dr. Albert Rodriguez. Florida Pain Medicine Associates, Inc. is a pain clinic located in Palm Beach County, Florida.

Our law firm, along with co-counsel Bruce Reinhart of McDonald Hopkins, P.A., represented Rosa Gomez, a former pain clinic employee who worked as a receptionist and billing clerk. In 2013, Ms. Gomez approached Rabin Kammerer Johnson because she believed her employers were defrauding government healthcare programs by performing medically unnecessary procedures.

Under federal law, the Medicare program only pays for services that are “medically necessary.” A healthcare provider commits fraud by billing the government for unnecessary procedures.

In August 2013, Ms. Gomez became a whistleblower when we filed a qui tam case on her behalf pursuant to the False Claims Act. Among other allegations, Ms. Gomez alleged that the pain clinic had billed the government for medically unnecessary nerve conduction studies, a painful type of test administered to patients.

In April 2016, the Defendants agreed to pay $1.1 million to the United States Government to resolve the allegations of Ms. Gomez’s qui tam complaint. As a reward for bringing this whistleblower suit, the United States agreed to pay Ms. Gomez $242,000.

The lawsuit is titled U.S. ex rel Gomez v. Florida Pain Medicine Associates, Inc., 13-cv-80856, United States District Court, Southern District of Florida.

The Department of Justice Press Release can be found by clicking here.

If you know about fraud against government healthcare programs, contact one of our lawyers for a free consultation.