Escambia County settles Medicare false claim allegations for $5 million

Escambia County commissioners voted to approve a $5 million settlement in a lawsuit alleging the county filed false claims under Medicare through its ambulance service.

Escambia County commissioners voted 4-0 to approve a settlement in a lawsuit brought by the county's former medical director, Dr. Rayme Edler, under the False Claims Act.

Under the settlement, $3.5 million will be paid to the U.S. government, and the remaining $1.5 million will go to Edler.

Commission Chairman Steven Barry read a part of the settlement stipulation that the County Commission had no knowledge or any participation in any of the illegal conduct alleged in the lawsuit.

The $5 million settlement will be paid out over three years and will not come out of insurance claims, unlike previous settlements.

Edler filed a lawsuit against the county, alleging she was retaliated against for blowing the whistle on former county Emergency Management Services staff for falsifying training certifications and the county for falsely billing the federal government for ambulance services without properly certified personnel.

Escambia County settled the portion of the lawsuit involving Edler's allegations of retaliation for $950,000 in April.

Previously: Escambia settles with former medical director for nearly $1 million. Why suit isn't over

The vote was taken after a closed-door "shade" meeting between the board and county attorneys. While the meeting itself was closed, any official action must still be done in public. When Barry opened the public portion of the meeting, he said he would entertain any motions.

For nearly two minutes, no commissioner made a motion until Commissioner Lumon May suggested that Barry make the motion. Barry took the unusual step as chairman to make the motion to approve the settlement.

May seconded the motion and said he would vote to support it on the advice from attorneys that the settlement was in the best interest of taxpayers.

"If there is anyone engaged or involved in any of the alleged accusations, that can be proven that they will be properly reprimanded and counseled by the administration," May said.

Bergosh voted against the previous settlement with Edler, but he said he felt he had to approve this settlement given the evidence the board had seen in its closed-door meeting.

"With great reservation and great trepidation, unfortunately, given what we've seen, I have no other choice but to accept the settlement," Bergosh said. "But I think it's very important for the citizens to know that the conduct occurred years and years ago, more than 10 years ago, before many of us were on board. The conduct also had nothing whatsoever to do with the board. It was operational issues from previous employees and previous administrators. And although this looks like an extraordinarily large number, the number could have been geometrically worse."

In her amended complaint in the lawsuit, Edler's alleged the false claims began to be filed at some point before 2014 but continued to through at least 2020.

Commissioner Mike Kohler said the county cannot afford to continue to pay out settlements like this with no accountability to the people who put the county in this situation.

"Nobody's held accountable for all this money except for the citizens of Escambia County," Kohler said.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Escambia County settles Medicare false claim allegations for $5 million