Meridian Surgical Partners False Claims Act Action–$5.1 Million Settlement

Case name: United States of America ex rel. Thomas Reed Simmons v. Meridian Surgical Partners, LLC, et al.
Case type: Whistleblower and Qui Tam
Filed in: [U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee]
Docket: [Case No. 3:11-cv-00439]

Case Summary

In September 2014, Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight and the U.S. Government settled a whistleblower action under the False Claims Act (“FCA”) and the Anti-Kickback Statute with Meridian Surgical Partners, LLC (“Meridian”), a Tennessee-based health care company that acquires and manages ambulatory surgical centers (“ASCs”).

As part of the settlement, Meridian agreed to pay the government $5.1 million. The Relator, who was represented by Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, received a portion of the settlement.

The case alleged that Meridian bought financial stakes in ASCs and then sold shares in the clinics at a reduced rate to physicians as part of a kickback scheme that induced the physician-investors to refer patients to Meridian-controlled ASCs. The kickbacks, the Complaint alleged, also produced fraudulent claims to Medicare and other federally funded health-care programs.