Tenet Healthcare and Desert Regional Medical Center Settle False Claims Act Suit with Federal Government

Posted February 10th, 2020.

PALM SPRINGS, Calif., Feb. 10, 2020 — Sanford Heisler Sharp announced that multinational healthcare company Tenet Healthcare Corporation and Desert Regional Medical Center, one of Tenet’s hospitals located in Palm Springs, California, have agreed to settle a qui tam suit and pay $1.4 million to the United States.

Sanford Heisler Sharp represented Relator Michael Grace who filed the case against Tenet Healthcare and Desert Regional Medical Center in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California under the whistleblower provisions of the federal False Claims Acts in March 2017. Relator Grace was represented by Sanford Heisler Sharp's Washington, DC Managing Partner H. Vincent McKnight and co-chair of the firm’s whistleblower practice, San Diego Managing Partner , Of Counsel Grant Morris, and Senior Litigation Counsel Christine Dunn. The United States was represented by Benjamin Young of the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Division.

Mr. Grace, a former employee of Desert Regional Medical Center, alleged that Tenet and Desert Regional engaged in a scheme to submit false Medicare claims arising from the medically unnecessary implantation of cardiac event records by various physicians at Desert Regional from 2014-2017.

Tenet and Desert Regional agreed to pay approximately $1.4 million to settle the federal claims against them. The Relator will receive $240,789 of that federal settlement and an additional $250,000 for attorneys’ fees.

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