"TriWest Healthcare Alliance Corp. agreed to pay $10 million to resolve allegations that the Arizona-based contractor filed false inflated claims to the U.S. military's Tricare medical benefit plan between 2004 and 2010, the Justice Department said.
TriWest was accused of failing to pass on negotiated discounts with service providers to the program, which covers millions of military members, retirees and their families.
The settlement resolves a lawsuit filed by four former TriWest employees, Judi Jerdee, Deborah Thornton, Linda Glassgow and Paige Fiorillo, under the qui tam, or whistleblower provisions, of the False Claims Act. Together, the qui tam relators will receive $1.7 million as their share of the government's recovery.
"Ensuring that the programs receive the contractual savings and deductions to which they are entitled is essential to our commitment," Melinda Haag, U.S. attorney for the northern district of California, said."
TriWest pay $10M to settle false claims