By Bruce Vielmetti – Milwaukee Journal – Sentinel

One of the nation's largest providers of hospice care has agreed to pay $25 million to settle a Medicare fraud case initiated after a former company nurse in Milwaukee filed a whistle-blower suit.

It was the second such settlement in six years for Odyssey Healthcare Inc., which paid the federal government $12.5 million in 2006 after another Wisconsin-based employee sued.

"The real heroes of these cases are the medical professionals who stood up against the alleged fraud," said Nola Hitchcock Cross, their Milwaukee attorney. "The real winners in this fraud-fight story are the taxpayers."

The whistle blowers don't do too badly, either. Under the False Claims Act, they are entitled to a cut of the recovery and will share about $4.6 million.

This article can be found in its entirety on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal website.