A lawsuit filed against the Florida Neurological Center, LLC and its owner, Dr. Lance Kim of Ocala, in which the defendants were accused of several fraudulent practices under the False Claims Act, has been partially settled.
Kim and the Florida Neurological Center (FNC), located at 2237 SW 19th Ave. Road, Suite 101, have agreed to pay $800,000 to resolve allegations that Kim prescribed medically unnecessary and unreasonable prescription drugs, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Middle District of Florida.
The release specifically noted Acthar Gel, a prescription drug that cost the Medicare program around $35,000 for every five-day supply Kim prescribed.
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The agreement partially resolves the allegations brought against Kim and the center, andthere has been no determination of liability.
The lawsuit was filed in Orlando by Michael Singbush, Andrea Herrera and Harvey Kessler MeyerIV, all former employees of the Florida Neurological Center between 2014 and 2017. Under the False Claims Act, private individuals, or relators, can sue, on behalf of the government, companies and individuals that they believe to be defrauding government programs.
Also under the act, the relators are permitted to receive a share of the recovery, totaling $144,000 in this case.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moodys office issued a press release on the settlement Tuesday, stating that she is working with federal partners to recover thousands of dollars for Floridas Medicaid program related to the settlement.
The program will receive over $113,000 in restitution from the agreement.
Defrauding Floridas Medicaid program is not a victimless crime, Moody said in the release. It harms the taxpayers of our great state. My Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigators work hard to protect taxpayers by identifying, investigating and stopping fraud exploiting this taxpayer-funded health care program and recovering lost funds whenever possible.
FNC has served Marion County since 1998, according to its website. It specializes in evaluating and treating neurological disorders such as Alzheimers disease, neuropathy, muscle disorders and sleep disorders.
Kim received his undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Boston University and medical degree from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale.
He has worked as a research fellow at the Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital, interned in internal medicine at Northwestern University Medical Center and received a residency and fellowship in neurology from the University of Chicago.
Kim is the owner and sole practicing physician of FNC.
In a pretrial statement from May, the plaintiffs had maintained that Kim and FNC violated the False Claims Act (FCA) and that each plaintiff faced retaliation after complaining of the illegal actions.
The relators explained that the basic requirement for reimbursement from Medicare, Medicaid and other government healthcare programs is that services are reasonable and medically necessary. They described various ways in which they believed FNC submitted false claims.
The defendants denied any wrongdoing under the FCA, and the parties agreed to a voluntary dismissal of most of the counts on Tuesday.
The claimsthat each relator faced retaliation for questioning the practices and was either forced to resign or fired are still pending.
FNC and Kim deny any retaliation or that the relators engaged in protected activity, which prevents whistleblowers from retaliation.
FNC also soughtdamagein a counterclaim against Singbush, Herrera and Meyer, alleging unlawful use and disclosure of confidential information about patients, as well as breach of employment agreements. Those claims were dismissed in June.
The U.S. Attorneys Office for the Middle District of Florida reminds that tips about potential fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement can be reported to the Department of Health and Human Services at 800-HHS-TIPS (800-447-8477).
Contact reporter Danielle Johnson at djohnson@gannett.com.
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Ocala neurologist to pay $800K to settle allegations of prescribing unnecessary drugs - Ocala
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