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Top-10 False Claims Act Kickback Recoveries For 2016

Posted  January 4, 2017

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team

Here is our look-back at the top-10 Department of Justice False Claims Act recoveries in 2016 for violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute and/or the Stark Law.  Click here for a full chronological listing of all the DOJ False Claims Act recoveries in 2016.

  1. Lexington Medical Center — The South Carolina hospital agreed to pay $17 million to resolve allegations it violated the False Claims Act and the Physician Self-Referral Law (known as the Stark Law) by maintaining improper financial arrangements with 28 physicians.
  1. Hollister Inc. — The manufacturer of disposable health care products andByram Healthcare Centers, a supplier of medical products, agreed to collectively pay roughly $21 million to resolve allegations they violated the False Claims Act through an illegal kickback scheme under which Hollister paid kickbacks to Byram in return for marketing promotions, conversion campaigns and other referrals of patients to Hollister’s ostomy and continence care products.  DOJ
  1. Transportation Services Providers — The Miami-based company’s president Damian Mayol was sentenced to pay $26.8 million (and to 5 years in prison) for his role in a health care fraud scheme under which Mayol and his co-conspirators used his company to coordinate the payment of illegal kickbacks to recruiters, who in return referred patients to three now-defunct community mental health centers for costly partial hospitalization program services that were not medically necessary or not actually provided.  DOJ
  1. Omnicare, Inc.— The Ohio-based nursing home pharmacy agreed to pay roughly $28 million to resolve charges of violating the False Claims Act by soliciting and receiving kickbacks from pharmaceutical manufacturer Abbott Laboratories in exchange for promoting the prescription drug Depakote for nursing home patients. 
  1. Respironics Inc.— The Pennsylvania-based company agreed to pay $34.8 million to resolve charges it violated the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute by paying kickbacks in the form of free call center services to durable medical equipment suppliers that bought its masks for patients with sleep apnea.  DOJ
  1. Forest Laboratories — The New York-based company and its subsidiary Forest Pharmaceuticals Inc.agreed to pay $38 million to resolve allegations they violated the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute by paying kickbacks to induce physicians to prescribe the drugs Bystolic, Savella and Namenda.
  1. Zafar Mehmood — The owner of several Detroit home health care companies was ordered to pay roughly $40.5 million (and sentenced to 30 years in prison) for his role in a Medicare fraud scheme under which he obtained patients by paying cash kickbacks to recruiters, who in turn paid cash to patients to induce them to sign up for home health care with Mehmood’s companies: Access Care Home Care Inc.Patient Care Home Care Inc.Hands On Healing Home Care Inc. and All State Home Care Inc.  DOJ
  1. Salix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. — The Raleigh, North Carolina-based specialty pharmacywhich sells products used to treat various gastroenterology conditions, agreed to pay $54 million to settle charges it violated the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and False Claims Act by using its “speaker programs” as a mechanism to pay kickbacks to doctors to induce them to prescribe Salix drugs and medical devices.  DOJ (SDNY)
  1. Tenet Healthcare Corporation— The Florida-based hospital system and two of its Atlanta-area subsidiaries, Atlanta Medical Center Inc. and North Fulton Medical Center Inc., agreed to pay over $513 million to resolve charges they violated the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback statute through illegal kickbacks it paid in exchange for patient referrals.  DOJ
  1. Olympus Corp. of America — The country’s largest distributor of endoscopes and related equipment agreed to pay $623.2 million to resolve alleged violations of the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute through a scheme to pay kickbacks to doctors and hospitals.

Tagged in: Anti-Kickback and Stark, FCA Federal, Other Government Health Programs, Top 10,