Columbia / HCA Lawyers Want Judge Off Case

Three Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. executives charged with overbilling Medicare asked a judge to remove himself from the case after he was allegedly seen dining with the lead prosecutor. Lawyers for Robert Whiteside, Jay Jarrell and Michael Neeb argued that Judge Lee P. Gagliardi should not preside at a pretrial hearing next week because he was heard discussing an unrelated case with Assistant U.S. Atty. Kathleen Haley. The federal government and several states are investigating Columbia, the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chain, for alleged overbilling of the government’s Medicare and Medicaid health insurance programs. Both Gagliardi and Haley were at the time involved in the other case as judge and prosecutor. The Columbia executives’ lawyers noted that the judge was removed from that case and said he also should be taken off the Columbia case. Gagliardi and Haley were not immediately available for comment.