The Department of Justice has joined a whistleblower lawsuit that claims a Mississippi nursing home provided such deficient care as to be "worthless" even while being paid by Medicare and Medicaid. The suit is targeted at a Douglas K. Mittleider and companies he controlled; it claims that employees and supplies were withheld to pad profits to the point that the quality of care provided nursing home residents was effectively "worthless."
Source: San Francisco Gate
This is another case brought under the federal False Claims Act. Basically, its point is this: the nursing home received payment of Medicare and Medicaid funds based on it providing an adequate and minimum standard of care. The suit claims that it did not provide this minimum standard of care, but received payment for doing so and therefore defrauded the federal government of Medicare and Medicaid monies. The False Claims Act allows whistleblowers to retain 15-25% of the monies ultimately recovered.
