Reuters says Air Liquide, another large player in the home care gas market, said last month that it is negotiating to buy a controlling interest in the French business of LVL Medical. It has 50,500 employees in more than 100 countries and reported sales of €13.78 billion ($17.3 billion) last year, PharmPro says.Įarlier this year, it paid $748.74 million to buy the European operations of Air Products, also a U.S. The Munich-based Linde manufactures medical gases used in healthcare like oxygen therapy, aerosol therapy and anesthesia. home care market, reports Reuters, because of its 6% to 9% annual growth as the population ages. European industrial gas suppliers are targeting the U.S. Linde will pay $41.50 a share, or about $4.6 billion, to acquire Lincare Holdings, a Clearwater, FL, company that provides in-home respiratory therapy and has nearly 1,100 local centers where it offers oxygen therapy, chemotherapy and pain management, among other services, reports PharmPro. If successful, whistleblowers receive a percentage of the recovery.German-based Linde, a major manufacturer of oxygen products, lung drugs and anesthesia, has made another move on a home healthcare player as a way to move deeper into the American market. Under the False Claims Act, whistleblowers can sue companies on the government’s behalf to recover taxpayer money paid out based on fraudulent claims. The case began as two separate lawsuits, one filed in 2009 by two former Lincare employees in New York state, SallyJo Robins and Kathleen Dunlap, and another in 2010 by Germano Lima and Roberto Rabassa, ex-employees in Massachusetts. In court papers, Lincare said it followed various regulations and said the lawsuit was at most challenging “garden variety” billing errors. The company also paid kickbacks to physicians and their families to refer patients by providing them oxygen and supplies for free, the lawsuit said. “Our clients are pleased the case has been settled and resolved and look forward to moving on with their lives and careers,” Daniel Oliverio, a lawyer for the former Lincare employees who pursued the case, said in a statement.Īccording to the lawsuit, Lincare since 2003 billed government health programs, including Medicare, for oxygen equipment and tanks even when customers did not use or require them, fabricated customer oxygen orders and improperly waived customer co-payments and deductibles. Its settlement agreement was released late Monday after the deal received the U.S. providers of oxygen and respiratory therapy services and equipment, did not admit wrongdoing. “The matter was resolved to the satisfaction of all involved parties, with no admission of liability by any party,” Lincare said in a statement. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts, will resolve a lawsuit filed under the False Claims Act by former employees of the respiratory therapy services provider on behalf of the U.S. Lincare is also tardy in billing our health insurance company, so we dont have an Explanation of Benefits for May-August 2021 to know what we actually owe Lincare for those months. government for oxygen and respiratory care equipment. It’s largest disclosed sale occurred in 2019, when it sold Linde AG - South. Linde’s largest acquisition to date was in 2006, when it acquired The BOC Group for 12.3B. A total of 1 acquisition came from private equity firms. (Reuters) - Linde AG’s Lincare unit has agreed to pay $20 million to resolve a whistleblower lawsuit accusing the company of fraudulently billing the U.S. Linde has acquired 5 companies, including 2 in the last 5 years.
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