June 3, 2022
Two doctors allege in a lawsuit that the country’s largest dialysis provider performed potentially thousands of unnecessary, invasive vascular procedures on late-stage kidney disease patients and fraudulently charged Medicare and Medicaid for these procedures.
The Department of Justice has now joined the False Claims Act whistleblower lawsuit filed against dialysis giant Fresenius Medical Care, according to court documents filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.
The lawsuit, originally filed in 2014 in New York, claims Fresenius Medical Care and its business unit, Azura Vascular Care, violated the federal False Claims Act. The case remained under seal until the court lifted the seal May 9. The federal government has 60 days to file its complaint.
Nineteen states also are included in the lawsuit and potentially could join the case.
The U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York will be taking over the case against Fresenius’ New York facilities, according to law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, which is representing the plaintiffs in the case.