BILLINGS, Mont. — A health center in a Montana town pestered by fatal asbestos contamination should pay the federalgovernment practically $6 million in charges and damages after it sent hundreds of incorrect asbestos declares, a judge ruled.
The 337 incorrect declares made clients eligible for Medicare and other advantages they shouldn’t haveactually gotten. The federally moneyed center hasactually been at the leadingedge of the medical action to fatal contamination from mining near Libby, Montana
The judgement versus the Center for Asbestos Related Disease center comes in a federal case submitted by BNSF Railway in 2019 under the False Claims Act, which permits personal celebrations to takelegalactionagainst on the federalgovernment’s behalf.
BNSF — which is itself a accused in hundreds of asbestos-related claims — declared the center sent declares on behalf of clients without adequate verification they had asbestos-related illness.
After a seven-person jury concurred last month, U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen stated in a July 18 order that he was enforcing a stiff charge to avoid future misbehavior.
Christensen stated he was worried in specific that the center’s prominent physician, Brad Black, had detected himself with asbestos-related illness and that a nurse signed off for advantages for her own mom.
The judge likewise mentioned proof at trial of high rates of opioid prescriptions from the center for individuals who might not have had a genuine asbestos-related medicaldiagnosis.
The center showed “a negligent neglect for correct medical treatment and the legal requirement