JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The federal government formally filed a lawsuit Friday against Liberty Ambulance Services, Inc., a Jacksonville-based ambulance company.
Liberty Ambulance serves Duval, Clay, St. Johns, Nassau and Baker counties. Liberty Ambulance Services and four local hospitals were named in a earlier federal whistleblower lawsuit involving accusations of Medicare billing errors.
This lawsuit was originally filed under whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act by Shawn Pelletier, a former employee at Liberty Ambulance. He, too, is a party to the lawsuit that was filed Friday.
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The original lawsuit said the whistleblower observed "regular practices of falsifying Medicare required documents and records" at Liberty Ambulance Services. The government alleges that more than $28 million in claims were submitted to the federal healthcare programs. The government says the vast majority of these claims were medically unnecessary, predicated on false statements, and should not have been reimbursable.
Liberty Ambulance Services President Michael Assaf said in May that while billing mistakes have been made by the company and the government, he maintains the company did not commit fraud.
“There’s mistakes in any billing especially when it comes to health care billing," Assaf said. "The bills are very convoluted. We believe the errors go both ways and they may be heavily weighted on the government’s side because we believe that Medicare has denied payments on things that should have been paid."
In May, Assaf said the company is now fighting the federal government because it is seeking $3 million from the company.
“Three million dollars is impossible,” Assaf said. “The company would have to close. It can’t even be structured. On a company our size, a small business, they know that’s an unreasonable, insane offer.”
WJAX
