The Department of Justice announced that Circle Medical Technologies, Inc., a nationwide telemedicine company, its affiliated physician group, Circle Medical Care of California, and their Chief Medical Officer and medical director, Dr. Nicole Tsang, D.O., (collectively, “Circle Defendants”) have agreed to pay the United States and State of California $3,325,000 to settle a qui tam lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Asher Alavi and David Bocian of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP (“Kessler Topaz”) represented the whistleblower, Jason Vellen, and filed the qui tam lawsuit under seal in 2024 pursuant to the whistleblower provisions of the federal False Claims Act and California Insurance Frauds Prevention Act. In June 2026, the United States and State of California intervened in the lawsuit for purposes of settlement.
The settlement, one of the first of its kind involving a telemedicine company, resolves allegations that the Circle Defendants defrauded federally funded healthcare programs and private insurance plans in California by billing numerous telemedicine visits provided by its roughly 350 providers to patients throughout the country under the name and NPI of a physician who neither provided nor supervised the visits. In fact, the telemedicine visits, which were primarily related to the prescription of ADHD medication, were overwhelmingly performed by contracted physician-assistants and nurse practitioners, who were not properly supervised by the rendering provider listed on the claims.
“This case reaffirms the role that conscientious whistleblowers can play in combatting fraudulent billing in healthcare, including in telemedicine” said David Bocian, a former federal prosecutor and head of Kessler Topaz’s Whistleblower and False Claims Act Litigation practice group. “We applaud the California Department of Insurance and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco for their outstanding result.”
The qui tam suit was filed pursuant to the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act and California Insurance Frauds Prevention Act, which encourage private citizens to fight fraud against the federal government and California insurance plans by bringing a whistleblower lawsuit. If the government joins the lawsuit, the whistleblower may receive a percentage of the settlement as a monetary award. Here, the whistleblower received 35% of the California portion of the settlement and 17% of the federal portion of the settlement.
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Kessler Topaz specializes in the prosecution of complex litigation on a contingent basis, litigating matters against the largest multi-national corporations and the most sophisticated defense firms. Since the Firm’s founding it has recovered billions of dollars for its clients, developed a worldwide reputation for success, and has repeatedly been named as one of the nation’s most prominent plaintiffs’ firms.
Kessler Topaz’s Whistleblower and False Claims Act Litigation practice group includes former federal and state prosecutors with extensive experience litigating health care, securities, corporate and government contract fraud and attorneys who dedicate their practice to representing whistleblowers. The practice group is run by David Bocian and Asher Alavi.