The False Claims Act enables a private citizen with unique knowledge of fraud committed against the federal government (such as health care fraud, contract fraud, and tax fraud) to file a lawsuit under seal (not accessible to the public) seeking treble (triple the amount) damages on behalf of the government... Read more about the False Claims Act
Recent amendments to the federal False Claims Act have expanded whistleblower protections and increased penalties for violators. The amendments came in the form of the federal Deficit Reduction Act, the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act, the Affordable Care Act, and the Dodd-Frank Act.
California revamped its own False Claims Act earlier this year to bring it into compliance with federal law—and qualify for a 10 percent increase in its share of False Claims Act recoveries in cases... full text
ISTA Pharmaceuticals has pleaded guilty to federal felony charges of conspiracy to introduce a misbranded drug into interstate commerce and conspiracy to pay illegal remuneration in violation of the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute, the U.S. Department of Justice announced last week. In addition to criminal fines and asset forfeiture, ISTA has also entered into a civil settlement for knowingly submitting or causing the submission of false claims to federal health care programs.
Under the... full text
Parkland Memorial Hospital of Dallas, Texas has agreed to pay a $1.4 million settlement to resolve allegations that they knowingly submitted or caused the submission of false claims to Medicare and Medicaid, the Dallas Morning News reported recently. Parkland has also agreed to enter into a corporate integrity agreement with federal health regulators to monitor future claims, bills, clinical quality, patient safety, ethics, and compliance. This represents the fourth time the... full text
Texas-based U.S. Renal Care has agreed to pay $7.3 million to resolve allegations that their subsidiary, Dialysis Corporation of America (DCA), violated the False Claims Act by knowingly submitting false claims to the Medicare program for more medication than was actually administered to dialysis patients, the U.S. Department of Justice announced today.
Epogen is an intravenous medication that is used to treat anemia, a common condition afflicting patients with end-stage renal disease. ... full text
In the largest drug safety settlement of its kind to date, generic drug manufacturer Ranbaxy USA Inc. pleaded guilty to felony charges relating to the manufacture and distribution of adulterated drugs, as well as violation of the False Claims Act, the U.S. Department of Justice announced this week. Ranbaxy agreed to pay a criminal fine and forfeiture amounting to $150 million and another $350 million for the False Claims Act violations.
Ranbaxy admitted to distributing certain batches of... full text
New Jersey-based C.R. Bard has agreed to pay the U.S. government $48.26 million to resolve allegations that it knowingly caused false claims to be submitted to Medicare for brachytherapy seeds used to treat prostate cancer, the U.S. Department of Justice announced this week.
The United States alleged that from 1998 to 2006, Bard violated the Anti-Kickback Statute when the company provided illegal remuneration to customers and physicians to induce them to purchase Bard’s seeds, in the form... full text
A federal jury has found South Carolina-based Tuomey Healthcare System violated the Stark Law and the False Claims Act when it collected nearly $40 million in fraudulent Medicare claims, reported Sumter, S.C.’s The Item.
Tuomey Healthcare System was accused of signing 19 doctors to lucrative part-time contracts that paid well above fair market value in order to continue to receive the referral fees associated with those doctors’ procedures. Paying doctors out of their referral... full text
Adventist Health and its Los Angeles-based affiliated hospital White Memorial Medical Center have agreed to pay the United States and the State of California $14.1 million to settle allegations that they violated the Anti-Kickback Act, the Stark Statute, and the False Claims Act, the U.S. Department of Justice announced last week.
Adventist Health allegedly improperly compensated physicians who referred patients to the White Memorial facility by transferring assets, including medical and non-... full text
The United States filed a second false claims action against Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. alleging that they paid kickbacks to doctors to induce them to prescribe Novartis pharmaceutical products that were reimbursed by federal health care programs, the Justice Department announced last week.
The government alleges that from January 2001 through November 2011, Novartis systematically violated the Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits payment of remuneration to induce referrals of items or... full text
The U.S. government filed its complaint against former cycling champion Lance Armstrong in Washington, D.C., Reuters reported yesterday. Armstrong, now stripped of his seven Tour de France wins, is accused of defrauding his sponsor, the U.S. Postal Service, by taking millions of dollars in sponsorship money while at the same time engaging in prohibited substance and method use (“doping”).
The complaint alleges that the team, including Armstrong, “knowingly caused... full text
