BILLINGS, Mont. — A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling that a Montana health center hundreds of false asbestos claims filed on behalf of patients.
Last year, a jury found that the clinic, in a city where hundreds of people have died from asbestos exposure, filed more than 300 false asbestos claims, entitling patients to Medicare and other benefits they should not have received.
The Center for Asbestos Related Disease (CARD) in Libby, Montana, had asked the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn last year’s ruling. The clinic’s attorney argued that the clinic’s actions were acceptable to federal officials and that the judge in the case had given improper jury instructions.
But a three-judge panel said in a decision issued Tuesday night that the clinic could not blame federal officials for failing to follow the law. The panel also said Judge Dana Christensen’s jury instructions were appropriate.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently awarded the clinic a new five-year asbestos health screening grant, CARD said in a statement Wednesday from Executive Director Tracy McNew. The appeals court ruling will not affect day-to-day operations, she said.
“We want to reassure our patients and community that no person has lost Medicare benefits as a result of the trial. Our diagnoses are good and we stand behind the care we provide,” McNew wrote. “CARD is financially stable and continues its mission.”
The clinic has received more than $20 million in federal funding and certified more than 3,400 people with asbestos-related illnesses, according to court documents. Most of the patients for whom false claims were made did not have a diagnosis of asbestos-related illness confirmed by a radiologist, the 9th Circuit said.
The case is the result of a lawsuit brought by BNSF Railway against the clinic. The railroad company was found separately liable for contamination in Libby and is a defendant in hundreds of asbestos-related lawsuits, according to court documents.
The clinic was ordered to pay nearly $6 million in fines and costs after last year’s ruling. However, the clinic will not have to pay that money under a settlement reached in bankruptcy court with BNSF and the federal government, documents show.
Representatives for BNSF did not immediately respond to email messages seeking comment.
The Libby area was declared a Superfund site twenty years ago after media reports of miners and their families becoming ill and dying from asbestos dust from vermiculite mined by WR Grace & Co. The contaminated vermiculite was transported by rail through the town of 3,000 for decades.
Exposure to even a tiny amount of asbestos can cause lung problems, scientists say. Asbestos-related diseases can range from a thickening of a person’s lung cavity that can impede breathing to deadly cancer.
It may take decades for symptoms to develop.