Sharp HealthCare — Medicare Fraud/Kickbacks (undisclosed settlement amount)
Three of our whistleblower attorneys represented a whistleblower in a qui tam action under the False Claims Act against Sharp HealthCare, a regional hospital system in San Diego. Our client alleged that the Sharp Healthcare Center for Research, Sharp’s clinical-trial research arm, fraudulently billed government payers in violation of “secondary payer” rules that prohibit billing the government when other payers will pay for a patient’s care. Our whistleblower client also alleged that Sharp cultivated an illegal kickback scheme to entice prospective trial sponsors to host clinical trials at Sharp by regularly undervaluing Sharp’s costs involved in managing clinical trials. By offering below-market value incentives and billing government and commercial insurers for injuries, the lawsuit alleged that Sharp sought to increase its attractiveness to trial sponsors. Sharp’s alleged purpose was to burnish the organization’s reputation and offer a lucrative stream of income for Sharp-affiliated physicians involved in clinical trials. Sharp settled the whistleblower’s case for an undisclosed amount. Read more
here.
Tagged in:
Anti-Kickback and Stark,
FCA Federal,
FCA State,
Healthcare Fraud,
Hospital Fraud,
Medicaid,
Medical Billing Fraud,
Medical Devices and DME,
Medicare,
Other Government Health Programs,
Pharma Fraud,
Private Insurance Whistleblower Reward Programs,
Provider Fraud,
Whistleblower Rewards,