Contractor sued over billing DC Metro for picking up disabled people that were dead

A nearly $200,000 settlement has been reached over accusations that a contractor for the Washington transit authority was billing the agency for picking up disabled people who were actually deceased.

{mosads}Two former van drivers for MV Transportation first brought the case in 2013 in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia under the False Claims Act, which allows whistleblowers to come forward with knowledge of a contractor that is defrauding taxpayers through receiving government funds.

The court documents were unsealed Friday afternoon and are being first reported by The Hill.

MV Transportation was contracted by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) to provide its door-to-door service, MetroAccess, for people who are elderly or disabled and cannot use the bus or rail systems.

The suit accused MV Transportation of knowingly billing MetroAccess for picking up people who were either deceased or had discontinued the service. The charge was marked as a cancellation at the door, despite both the driver and the company knowing the passenger was dead, the plaintiffs alleged.

The company also was accused of charging Metro for more expensive wheelchair-accessible vehicles for riders who didn’t actually need the service.

MV managed MetroAccess services from 2005 to 2013, during which it received more than $168 million from Metro.

The company, which admitted no wrongdoing, said in a statement that there were sometimes “issues promptly conveying updates to passenger information from the subcontractor to MV to WMATA, which led to billing errors.”

MV added that it relied heavily on subcontractors—many of which were recommended by WMATA—to perform services under the contract.

The company still holds a contract with Metro through 2018 to manage the MetroAccess call center operations.

Metro could not be reached for comment by Friday afternoon.

The attorney general offices in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, who all joined the case, plan to put out a joint press release next week, after the July Fourth weekend.

Under the settlement, Maryland is slated to receive $92,000, D.C. will get $35,000, Virginia will get $22,000, and the two former bus drivers who uncovered the abuse will get a total of $27,000.

The local jurisdictions are likely to highlight the case as an example of working together to maintain oversight of taxpayer dollars.

“Obviously, there have been several issues recently with WMATA.  So, the importance of my clients coming forward and reporting what they witnessed cannot be underscored,” said attorney Brian Markovitz of Joseph, Greenwald & Laake. “The government officials involved here did an excellent job investigating this matter and should be commended for their efforts.”

–The story was updated at 5:30 p.m.