SouthernCare Stops Whistleblower Nurse’s Hospice Fraud Claim

SouthernCare Inc. showed that a whistleblower’s claim that it billed Medicare for patients who were ineligible for hospice services and for services not rendered is precluded under the False Claims Act’s first-to-file bar, a Mississippi district court ruled.

Registered nurse Rhonda McClinton filed her suit in February 2016 when another related FCA suit, U.S. ex rel. Hamrock v. SouthernCare Inc., was pending in a Pennsylvania district court, Judge Carlton W. Reeves of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi said.

The fact that the Pennsylvania suit settled for $6 million in 2018, and that McClinton filed ...