A federal jury has found a Libby medical clinic guilty of falsifying medical records, allowing people to receive over $1 million in benefits for asbestos-related disease.
Hundreds of Libby residents have died from asbestos-related disease linked to contamination from a defunct vermiculite mine. After the town was declared a superfund site, locals with diagnosed illness related to asbestos contamination became eligible for federal medical benefits.
A federal jury found the Center for Asbestos Related Disease (CARD) guilty of falsifying records for over 300 patients, amounting to a little over $1 million in federal benefits.
BNSF Railway, which has been found liable for spreading contamination from the mine, filed the lawsuit against the clinic. BNSF alleged the records were falsified because CARD didn’t get outside confirmation for the patients in question. In a statement BNSF applauded the ruling.
The clinic could face penalties and BNSF could be eligible for some money recovered by the federal government.
The CARD clinic in a statement said it stands by its practices and plans to appeal the case.
