False Claims / Whistleblowers

January 3, 2014
The United States has intervened in a False Claims Act case against Florida-based Health Management Associates, Inc. (HMA), after uncovering allegations of unlawful kickbacks and improper billing claims to federal healthcare entities such as Medicare and Medicaid, the Atlanta Business Chronicle announced last month. HMA allegedly encouraged physicians to inappropriately admit...
December 31, 2013
St. James Healthcare (St. James) and its parent company, Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System (Sisters of Charity), have agreed to pay $3.85 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act, the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Law, the Department of Justice announced today. Allegedly, St. James knowingly provided financial benefits to...
December 30, 2013
Taylor Bean & Whitaker Mortgage may pay the United States more than $320 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act submitting false mortgage claims, Bloomberg Businessweek announced earlier this month. The settlement would resolve allegations that Taylor Bean knowingly submitted fraudulent mortgages to the Federal Housing Administration (FHA)...
December 27, 2013
Illinois-based Abbott Laboratories has agreed to pay the United States $5.475 million to resolve allegations that the company violated the False Claims Act by paying kickbacks to induce doctors to implant the company’s vascular products, the Justice Department announced today.  Abbott is a global pharmaceuticals and health care products company. The settlement...
December 23, 2013
Genzyme Corp. (Genzyme) has agreed to pay $22.28 million to resolve allegations, under the False Claims Act, that they knowingly marketed and caused false claims to be submitted to federal and state health care programs for use of a “slurry” version of its Seprafilm adhesion barrier, the Justice Department announced today.   Seprafilm is a thin film...
December 20, 2013
The Justice Department secured $3.8 billion for settlements and judgments from civil cases involving fraud against the government in the 2013 fiscal year, the U.S. Department of Justice announced today. This amount, which is the second largest annual recovery of its type in history, brings total recoveries under the False Claims Act, since 2009, to $17 billion – nearly...
December 19, 2013
Cardiologist Dr. Elie H. Korban (Korban) will pay $1.15 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations that he billed Medicare and Medicaid for medically unnecessary cardiac stent placements, the Justice Department announced today. Cardiac stents are mesh tubes placed in coronary arteries of patients to keep their arteries open during the treatment of coronary heart disease....
December 16, 2013
After a decade-long legal battle, Dr. Van Pena won $1.35 million from the California’s state-run Sonoma Developmental Center for wrongful termination in connection with his attempts to report “gross medical negligence” in 2000, Petaluma360 reported. Dr. Pena had worked at Sonoma Developmental Center, a full time care facility for over a thousand...
December 12, 2013
Northrop Grumman Corp. (Northrop ) has paid the United States $11.4 million to settle a government claim for penalties provided under the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and False Claims Act allegations stemming from its failure to abide by a 2002 settlement agreement, the Justice Department announced earlier this week. Northrop allegedly charged federal contracts certain...