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September 23, 2020

Gilead Sciences, Inc. has agreed to pay $97 million to resolve claims of paying kickbacks to Medicare beneficiaries in connection with its pulmonary arterial hypertension drug, Letairis.  From 2007 to 2010, Gilead enticed beneficiaries to purchase Letairis by allegedly referring the beneficiaries to a foundation, Caring Voice Coalition (CVC), and then making payments to CVC to cover patient copays of Letairis specifically, in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute and Medicare rules.  Additionally, Gilead routinely obtained data from CVC that it used to inform future payments, including how many CVC clients were on Letairis, how much CVC spent on those clients, and how much CVC expected to spend on them in the future.  DOJ; USAO MA

Tagged in: Anti-Kickback and Stark, FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Medicare, Part D, Pharma Fraud,

September 9, 2020

West Virginia-based acute care hospital, Wheeling Hospital, Inc., has agreed to pay $50 million to resolve claims of violating the Anti-Kickback Statute, Physician Self-Referral (Stark) Law, and False Claims Act.  According to a former executive turned whistleblower, Louis Longo, Wheeling knowingly provided referring physicians with compensation above fair market value, based on the volume or value of their referrals, then submitted claims resulting from those improper referrals to Medicare.  As part of the settlement, Longo will receive a $10 million relator’s share.  DOJ; USAO WDPA; USAO NDWV

Tagged in: Anti-Kickback and Stark, FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Medicare, Provider Fraud, Whistleblower Case, Whistleblower Rewards,

September 3, 2020

Two affiliates of Independence Blue Cross, Keystone Health Plan East, Inc. and QCC Insurance Company, Inc., which offer Part C Medicare Advantage plans, agreed to pay $2.25 million to resolve allegations that they overstated their costs when they submitted bids to CMS for contract years 2009 and 2010.  As a result, CMS reimbursed them at at an inflated rate.  The matter was initiated by the filing a qui tam complaint under the False Claims act by Eric Johnson, who will receive $500,000 from the recovery.  USAO EDPA

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Managed Care, Medicare, Whistleblower Case, Whistleblower Rewards,

August 24, 2020

Following a whistleblower suit by a former sales representative, DUSA Pharmaceuticals (DUSA), a Massachusetts-based subsidiary of Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries Inc. (Sun Pharma), has agreed to pay $20.75 million to resolve allegations of defrauding Medicare and the Federal Employee Health Benefit Pr­­­ogram.  According to relator Aaron Chung, senior management at DUSA and Sun Pharma allegedly encouraged doctors, via paid speaker programs and discussions, to use shorter incubation periods of 1-3 hours for Levulan Kerastick, a topical prescription medication for treating actinic keratosis (AK) of the face and scalp that had FDA-approved instructions for 14-18 hour incubation periods.  As expected, the significantly reduced incubation periods resulted in significantly reduced AK clearance rates, yet DUSA failed to inform doctors of the lower rates and even actively misinformed them that AK clearance rates were the same regardless of incubation period.  For exposing the fraudulent conduct, Chung will receive approximately $3.5 million of the settlement proceeds.  DOJ; USAO WDWA

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Medicare, Other Government Health Programs, Pharma Fraud, Whistleblower Case, Whistleblower Rewards,

August 21, 2020

A Georgia-based chiropractor and her medical practice have been ordered to pay more than $5 million for violating the False Claims Act.  The government alleged that Dr. Jennifer Heller, D.C. caused Medicare to pay $1.4 million more than it would have had it known that hundreds of Heller’s charges for a surgical neurostimulator procedure were in actuality for acupuncture devices, which are not covered by Medicare, and which do not require surgery.  To resolve the charges, Heller Family Medicine, LLC will have to pay $4.3 million, while Heller herself will have to pay $700,000.  USAO SDGA

Tagged in: Chiropractic, FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Medical Billing Fraud, Medical Devices and DME, Medicare, Provider Fraud,

August 13, 2020

Advanced Care Scripts, Inc. (ACS) has agreed to pay $3.5 million to resolve allegations of conspiring with Teva Neuroscience, Inc. (Teva) to pay kickbacks to Medicare beneficiaries in order to induce purchases of Teva’s multiple sclerosis drug, Copaxone.  The kickbacks came in the form of effectively covering beneficiaries’ co-pays through correlated payments to the Chronic Disease Foundation (CDF) and The Assistance Fund (TAF).  USAO MA

Tagged in: Anti-Kickback and Stark, Healthcare Fraud, Medicare, Part D, Pharma Fraud,

August 11, 2020

The former owner of Texas-based All Smiles Dental Center has been ordered to pay $16.5 million to the State of Texas for improperly billing Texas Medicaid for tens of millions of dollars in services that he did not deliver, including services allegedly performed while he was vacationing abroad.  In total, Dr. Richard Malouf was found to have committed 1,842 unlawful acts under the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act.  AG TX

Tagged in: FCA State, Healthcare Fraud, Medicaid, Medical Billing Fraud,

July 30, 2020

Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), now known as DXC Technology, and New York City have agreed to pay approximately $2.8 million to resolve allegations of violating the federal and New York State False Claims Acts in connection with New York City’s Early Intervention Program (EIP), which provides speech and physical therapy services for infants and toddlers with possible developmental disabilities.  According to a qui tam lawsuit, while retained by the City to process and submit its EIP claims to various insurers, CSC allegedly received permission from the City to categorize claims submitted to private insurers as “denied” if no response was received within 90 days.  CSC then resubmitted those claims to Medicaid using an improper code, causing Medicaid to make payments it would not have otherwise.  For revealing the misconduct, the unnamed whistleblower in this case will receive $416,250.  AG NY; USAO SDNY

Tagged in: FCA Federal, FCA State, Healthcare Fraud, Medicaid, Medical Billing Fraud, Whistleblower Case, Whistleblower Rewards,

July 23, 2020

Two pharmacists who were co-owners of Advantage Pharmacy in Mississippi have been sentenced to over 12 years in prison each and ordered to pay between $9 million and $29 million in civil monetary judgment, and between $185 million and $189 million in restitution for committing healthcare fraud.  According to the press release, Glenn Doyle Beach and Hope Thomley marketed, dispensed, and distributed compounded medications without regard to medical necessity, causing various health benefit programs, including TRICARE, to pay over $200 million in reimbursements.  Thomley’s husband, Randy Thomley, has been sentenced to 8 years in prison and ordered to pay judgment and restitution of $3.6 million each for his role in helping to recruit TRICARE beneficiaries.  USAO SDMS

Tagged in: Compounding Pharmacy Fraud, Criminal Proceedings, Healthcare Fraud, Lack of Medical Necessity, Other Government Health Programs, Pharma Fraud,

July 23, 2020

Progenity, Inc., f/k/a Ascendant MDx, Inc., has agreed to pay a total of $49 million to resolve allegations that the California-based clinical laboratory submitted false claims to Medicaid, the VA, TRICARE, and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) through different fraudulent schemes.  First, from 2012 to 2016, Progenity allegedly billed the programs for non-reimbursable prenatal tests using a reimbursable billing code.  Second, in claims originally brought by a whistleblower under the False Claims Act, the company was alleged to violate the Anti-Kickback Statue by providing improper incentives to physicians—including paying above fair market value for blood specimen “draw fees”, providing tens of thousands of dollars in free food and alcohol, and routinely reducing or waiving co-insurance or deductibles—in order to induce physicians to order their tests.  Approximately $35.9 million of the settlement proceeds will go toward resolving federal claims, with the remaining $13.1 million paid to different states.  AG NC; USAO SDCA; USAO SDNY

Tagged in: Anti-Kickback and Stark, FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Laboratory and IDTF, Medicaid, Medical Billing Fraud, Other Government Health Programs, Upcoding, Whistleblower Case,

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