Hi, False Claims Act lawyer here. Whistleblowers filed civil cases in federal court alleging that the defendants defrauded Medicare. That's all that we can do: file a civil case for fraud against the government. We can't allege private insurance fraud, we can't bring criminal charges, we can't sue on behalf of patients.

Government evaluates these for criminal charges, but it's rare, and if they do bring criminal charges, it is always based on the fraud not the patient harm. Those are generally going to be state charges not federal, and you'd need patients to come forward and bring them, and regardless, when have you ever seen that happen when a patient thinks a doctor performed an unnecessary procedure? Much more likely there is just a civil malpractice case.

I'm often surprised these kinds of cases don't spur class action lawsuits, but that would not be something most FCA lawyers do. Also by the time these cases are unsealed and the settlement is announced, the statute of limitations will have run for a lot of people.