In April 2022, news broke that a former employee of Middle Georgia Family Rehab claimed the company had submitted false bills for work that was never completed and for work performed by unqualified providers. Joshua Walthour, the whistleblower in this case, was employed by Middle Georgia Family Rehab from February to May 2018. Mayo | Hill co-founder Michael Mayo represented Mr. Walthour in this case.
In his short time working at Middle Georgia Family Rehab, Mr. Walthour recognized the facility had been billing Medicare and other government payors for work that did not occur. With the help of Mr. Walthour’s testimony, along with further investigation by Michael Mayo and the other attorneys involved in this case, it was determined that Middle Georgia Family Rehab had submitted thousands of false claims.
At an April hearing, Judge Tripp Self ruled against Middle Georgia Family Rehab. At a subsequent hearing in May, it was determined the facility owes $9.6 million in fraudulent billing for only a portion of the claims alleged to have been falsely submitted. The defendant has stated an intention to appeal this judgment to the 11thCircuit Court of Appeals.
When asked about the current results of this case, attorney Michael Mayo had this to say:
“I am really proud to be part of a team of professionals from other firms and the United States Attorney’s Office, all of whom helped bring about this positive result for the client, the United States of America, and the Middle Georgia community. I know people want to focus on the amounts of judgments and things like that, but the undeniable truth is that our investigation and presentation of this claim will protect patients in this area from abuses by this business and potentially many others who might now think twice about acting inappropriately. We continue to work on behalf of whistleblowers and look forward to assisting anyone else in need of guidance.”
News coverage of this case can be found at the links below: