Klaczak v. Consol. Med. Transp., Inc.,
No. 96 C 6502 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 9, 2002)

Two relators and the United States brought a qui tam action against an ambulance service provider, several hospitals, and their employees, alleging that they caused tens of thousands of false claims for ambulance services to be submitted to Medicare and Medicaid, resulting in $8,971,580 in actual damages (subject to treble damages).

Essentially, the relators (who were former employees of the ambulance service providers) and the United States alleged that the ambulance providers transported patients to hospitals via ambulance when ambulance transport was not medically necessary. Also, the relators claimed that the ambulance service provider contracted exclusively with several hospitals, whereby the ambulance provider offered those hospitals below-cost discounts on inpatient transports, in exchange for the referral of all outpatient transports to the ambulance provider. The ambulance provider, hospital, and their employees filed several motions to dismiss, arguing, among other things, that the allegations were insufficient to support the false claims counts.

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois denied all of the motions to dismiss, finding the allegations and statements of fact to support all federal false claims and state actions brought by the relators and the United States.