Judge Orders Montana Health Clinic to Pay Nearly $6 Million Over False Asbestos Claims

Judge Orders Montana Health Clinic to Pay Nearly $6 Million Over False Asbestos Claims
Unidentified road workers wear protective gear against possible asbestos contamination as they load material from a road resurfacing project in downtown Libby, Mont., on April 28, 2011. Matthew Brown/AP
|Updated:
0:00

BILLINGS, Mont.—A health clinic in a Montana town plagued by deadly asbestos contamination must pay the government almost $6 million in penalties and damages after it submitted hundreds of false asbestos claims, a judge ruled.

The 337 false claims made patients eligible for Medicare and other benefits they shouldn’t have received. The federally funded clinic has been at the forefront of the medical response to deadly pollution from mining near Libby, Montana