Smith v. Carolina Medical Center

MEMORANDUM

STENGEL, C. J.

Karen Smith, the former clinical director at a mental health clinic in North Carolina, filed a qui tam complaint under the False Claims Act (FCA), 31 U.S.C. § 3729, et seq., alleging that an “excluded person,”— Melchor Martinez, who had been convicted of Medicaid fraud in 2000—was improperly managing the clinic as well as several others, and that these clinics were concealing this fact, thereby tendering their Medicare and Medicaid billings fraudulent.1 She brought her claims against three corporations that owned the clinics: Carolina Community Mental Health Centers,…