Archive

Texas Hospital to Pay $7.5 Million to Settle Kickback Allegations

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team The Department of Justice announced Friday that Pine Creek Medical Center LLC, a physician-owned hospital based in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle claims it violated the False Claims Act. The claims centered on allegations that Pine Creek paid physicians kickbacks through marketing services in exchange for surgical referrals. The government alleged...

Drug Wholesaler Settles FCA Suit For $625M

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team AmerisourceBergen, a Pennsylvania-based company that provides drug distribution and related services, has agreed to pay $625M to settle an FCA case that claimed that a pre-filled syringe program at one of its subsidiaries violated several federal laws.  The subsidiary, Medical Initiatives Inc. (MII), closed in 2014, but was responsible for moving cancer medications from glass...

Miami-Area Man Pleads Guilty for Role in $63M Health Care Fraud Scheme

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team A Boca Raton man pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiracy to defraud the federal government and receive kickbacks and/or bribes in a $63 million health care fraud scheme. As part of the plea, announced yesterday by the Justice Department, Samuel Konell admitted that for approximately six years, he coordinated with criminal defendants in the state court system to funnel the...

New York Announces Indictment of Unlicensed Plastic Surgeon Charged with Illegally Performing Over 60 Plastic Surgeries

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office announced the arrests of unlicensed plastic surgeon Brad Jacobs and physician Nicholas Sewell on charges they engaged in a four-year scheme to illegally perform plastic surgeries on over 60 patients, including causing permanent disfigurement to one patient. Jacobs was licensed to practice medicine in 1988 and practiced...

Pennsylvania Hospital and Physicians’ Group Settle FCA Suit for Over $20M

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team UPMC Hamot, a hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania, and Medicor Associates Inc, a cardiology practice, have agreed to pay $20.7M to settle allegations that they violated the FCA by paying for patient referrals in violation of the Stark law and Anti-Kickback Statute. Generally speaking, the Stark law and Anti-kickback statute prohibit hospitals, physicians, pharmacies, nursing homes,...

Constantine Cannon Partner Mary Inman Will Be Featured on RAC Monitor

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team

Healthcare Software Company Epic Systems Accused of Double Billing Government for Anesthesia

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Law360 reports on a newly unsealed False Claims Act lawsuit against healthcare software company Epic Systems alleging that Epic has systematically overbilled the government for anesthesia services. The complaint, filed on behalf of the United States by relator Geraldine Petrowski in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, alleges that Epic’s software...

Chemed to Pay $75 Million to Settle False Claims Lawsuit

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Chemed, and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Vitas, have agreed to pay $75 million to resolve a government lawsuit brought under the False Claims Act (FCA). According to the DOJ’s press release, the settlement resolves allegations that between 2002 and 2013 Vitas submitted false claims to Medicare for services to hospice patients who were not terminally ill. The government’s...

In Their Own Words -- Readler

-- “Medicare’s hospice benefit provides critical services to some of the most vulnerable Medicare patients, and the Department will continue to ensure that this valuable benefit is used to assist those who need it, and not as an opportunity to line the pockets of those who seek to abuse it.”

Acting Assistant Attorney General Chad A. Readler commenting on the government’s $75 Million settlement with Chemed.

Founder and Owner of Pharmaceutical Company Insys Arrested and Charged with Racketeering

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team The founder and majority owner of Insys Therapeutics Inc., was arrested and charged with leading a nationwide conspiracy to profit by using bribes and fraud to cause the illegal distribution of a Fentanyl spray intended for cancer patients experiencing breakthrough pain. "More than 20,000 Americans died of synthetic opioid overdoses last year, and millions are addicted to...