U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas B. Smith faced a Florida medical center’s claims of privilege over a host of documents and communications that the government and a qui tam whistleblower sought for discovery in a False Claims Act lawsuit, and he struck them down one by one like dominoes, with few exceptions.
It was a victory for Elin Baklid-Kunz, director of physician services at Halifax Hospital Medical Center in Daytona Beach, Fla., who sued Halifax in 2009 under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act. She claimed Halifax submitted false and fraudulent Medicare/Medicaid claims and paid kickbacks to physicians. The government intervened in 2011.
