“We think it's an innocent act, but the government believes it is an act of intentional obstruction of a government investigation,” said Brown, of the law firm Brown, Suarez and Rios.
The defense attorneys are preparing to analyze nearly 3 million documents relating to the long-running investigation, Brown said. The documents are likely to consist of “billing records, communications within the corporation, communications with individuals outside the corporation, medical practices, things like that.”
According to court records in Fort Myers, Putter was initially indicted in secret on Oct. 3 because the statute of limitations would have expired on Oct. 8. The indictment was unsealed on Tuesday when he was arrested.
“Additional evidence regarding other related offenses has been, and will continue to be, presented to the grand jury and a request from the grand jury for a superseding indictment to add additional charges is anticipated in the next 45 days,” Assistant U.S. Attorney David Lazarus wrote in an Oct. 3 request to seal the case.
Lazarus' filing (PDF) says attempts to resolve the situation before the filing of an indictment ended in September.
HMA, which is approaching a Jan. 8 shareholder vote to sell itself to Community Health Systems for $3.9 billion, has not been accused of any crime.
The company has disclosed numerous government investigations in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including one involving the U.S. attorney's office in the Middle District of Florida, where Putter was charged. In a quarterly filing this month, the company told shareholders that the investigation relates to physician referrals and financial arrangements with doctors. HMA believes the matter began with a whistle-blower lawsuit.
“Government representatives have interviewed certain of our current and former employees. We are conducting internal investigations and have met with government representatives on numerous occasions to respond to their inquiries,” the filing says.
Reached Wednesday for comment on Putter's criminal indictment, a spokeswoman for HMA said: “The United States Department of Justice alerted the company to the unsealed indictment of Mr. Putter on Nov. 26, 2013. Health Management has been cooperating with the DOJ's inquiry and will continue to do so.”
Putter was recruited away from HMA in September 2011, when he became chief operating officer for Boston's Steward Health Care System, which at the time had recently become the largest for-profit health system in New England.
On Wednesday, a spokeswoman for 11-hospital Steward said Putter went on personal leave last June, “and sometime thereafter, left permanently.”
“These developments focus exclusively on Mr. Putter's previous employment with Health Management and are completely unrelated to his position with Steward Health Care,” spokeswoman Brooke Thurston said.
Follow Joe Carlson on Twitter: @MHJCarlson
