Current:Home > FinanceCourt upholds finding that Montana clinic submitted false asbestos claims -×
Court upholds finding that Montana clinic submitted false asbestos claims
View
Date:2025-04-18 05:07:07
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court determination that a Montana health clinic submitted hundreds of false asbestos claims on behalf of patients.
A jury decided last year that the clinic in a town where hundreds of people have died from asbestos exposure submitted more than 300 false asbestos claims that made patients eligible for Medicare and other benefits they shouldn’t have received.
The Center for Asbestos Related Disease in Libby, Montana, had asked the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse last year’s ruling. The clinic’s attorney argued its actions were deemed acceptable by federal officials and that the judge in the case issued erroneous jury instructions.
But a three-judge panel said in a decision issued late Tuesday that the clinic couldn’t blame federal officials for its failure to follow the law. The panel also said that Judge Dana Christensen’s jury instructions were appropriate.
The clinic has received more than $20 million in federal funding and certified more than 3,400 people with asbestos-related disease, according to court documents. Most of the patients for whom false claims were made did not have a diagnosis of asbestos-related disease that was confirmed by a radiologist, the 9th Circuit said.
The case resulted from a lawsuit brought against the clinic by BNSF Railway. The railroad has separately been found liable over contamination in Libby and is a defendant in hundreds of asbestos-related lawsuits, according to court filings.
The clinic was ordered to pay almost $6 million in penalties and fees following last year’s ruling. However, it won’t have to pay that money under a settlement reached in bankruptcy court with BNSF and the federal government, documents show.
The Libby area was declared a Superfund site two decades ago following media reports that mine workers and their families were getting sick and dying due to asbestos dust from vermiculite that was mined by W.R. Grace & Co. The tainted vermiculite was shipped through the 3,000-person town by rail over decades.
Exposure to even a minuscule amount of asbestos can cause lung problems, according to scientists. Asbestos-related diseases can range from a thickening of a person’s lung cavity that can hamper breathing to deadly cancer.
Symptoms can take decades to develop.
veryGood! (1)
Related
- IRS recovers $4.7 billion in back taxes and braces for cuts with Trump and GOP in power
- 8 California firefighters injured in freeway rollover after battling Airport Fire
- Son arrested in killing of father, stepmother and stepbrother
- Kentucky sheriff charged in judge’s death allegedly ignored deputy’s abuse of woman in his chambers
- Questlove charts 50 years of SNL musical hits (and misses)
- Upset alert for Miami, USC? Bold predictions for Week 4 in college football
- Jury awards $116M to the family of a passenger killed in a New York helicopter crash
- Diddy faces public scrutiny over alleged sex crimes as questions arise about future of his music
- Highlights from Trump’s interview with Time magazine
- Video showing Sean 'Diddy' Combs being arrested at his hotel is released
Ranking
- In ‘Nickel Boys,’ striving for a new way to see
- GM recalls 450,000 pickups, SUVs including Escalades: See if your vehicle is on list
- Estranged husband arrested in death of his wife 31 years ago in Vermont
- California governor to sign a law to protect children from social media addiction
- Global Warming Set the Stage for Los Angeles Fires
- Golden Bachelorette Contestant Gil Ramirez Faced Restraining Order Just Days Before Filming
- Katy Perry's new album '143' is 'mindless' and 'uninspired,' per critics. What happened?
- Phillies torch Mets to clinch third straight playoff berth with NL East title in sight
Recommendation
Dick Vitale announces he is cancer free: 'Santa Claus came early'
Police chase in NYC, Long Island ends with driver dead and 7 officers, civilian taken to hospitals
Caren Bohan tapped to lead USA TODAY newsroom as editor-in-chief
GM recalls 450,000 pickups, SUVs including Escalades: See if your vehicle is on list
EU countries double down on a halt to Syrian asylum claims but will not yet send people back
Closing arguments begin in civil trial over ‘Trump Train’ encounter with Biden-Harris bus in Texas
Horoscopes Today, September 20, 2024
The Midwest could offer fall’s most electric foliage but leaf peepers elsewhere won’t miss out