Newly Unsealed Whistleblower Lawsuit Alleges Drug Giant McKesson Gave Doctors Illegal Kickbacks in the Form of Free Software
Posted 07/24/20
Constantine Cannon LLP is pleased to announce the unsealing of a whistleblower lawsuit its client brought alleging that drug wholesaler McKesson Corp. and its affiliated companies provided illegal kickbacks in the form of free business services to encourage oncologists and other doctors to buy drugs from McKesson.
The lawsuit alleges that McKesson gave doctors valuable business-management tools geared towards...
Oklahoma City Hospital, Management Company, And Physician Group to Pay $72.3 Million To Settle Kickback and Stark Allegations
Posted 07/10/20
Oklahoma Center for Orthopaedic and Multi-Specialty Surgery (OCOM), a specialty hospital affiliated with Tenet Healthcare in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, its part-owner and management company, USP OKC, Inc. and USP OKC Manager, Inc. (collectively USP), Southwest Orthopaedic Specialists, PLLC (SOS), an Oklahoma City-based physician group, and two SOS physicians, will pay $72.3 million to resolve kickback allegations...
Catch of the Week: Novartis Pays $729 Million to Settle Two Kickback Cases on Heels of $345 Million Foreign Bribery Settlement
Posted 07/2/20
This week and last, pharmaceutical manufacturer Novartis reached three settlements involving very different forms of unlawful kickbacks and bribes. First, this week the company agreed to pay a total of $678 million to resolve a New York case alleging that it paid inflated “speaking fees” and provided other incentives to doctors to induce them to prescribe Novartis drugs. Second, Novartis will pay $51.25...
Regeneron: The Government’s Latest Stand against Patient Kickbacks
Posted 06/25/20
This week, Boston-based prosecutors have filed a new False Claims Act case against Regeneron, a pharmaceutical company, alleging that it paid patients kickbacks aiming to steer them into using Regeneron’s macular degeneration drug, Eylea. Regeneron allegedly disguised the kickbacks as charitable contributions to a foundation. Prosecutors say that Regeneron only donated exactly enough money to the foundation, called...
Charges Filed in Shameful COVID-19 and Genetic-Cancer-Screening Test Scam
Posted 04/3/20
Erik Santos of Braselton, Georgia had run a fraudulent genetic cancer-screening-test scheme for months, then spotted an opportunity capitalize on fear surrounding COVID-19. According to the criminal complaint, Santos targeted elderly persons to determine if they met certain eligibility requirements for testing under government health-care programs. He passed the information along to co-conspirator testing...
The Missing Ventilator Stockpile Was Not Inevitable
Posted 04/3/20
The coronavirus crisis has been a crash course for the general public in how lifesaving ventilators work. But the federal government has long known how crucial they are and how important it is to be able to stockpile sufficient numbers. Five years ago, the government tried to plan ahead by commissioning the design and production of a low-cost ventilator to build up public and private stores in case an...
First Circuit Revives Whistleblower Suit Against PharMerica, Rejecting Public Disclosure Challenge
Posted 02/28/20
Rejecting an argument that only a fraudster could love, the First Circuit Court of Appeals revived a whistleblower’s lawsuit and rightly recognized that whistleblowers can have “direct” knowledge of fraud even if they did not themselves participate in the fraud. In United States ex rel. Banigan & Templin, et al. v. PharMerica, Inc., the First Circuit interpreted the so-called “original source” provision of...
Catch of the Week: Colorado Neurosurgeon and His Three Companies Settle Spinal Implant Kickback Claims for $2.35M
Posted 02/14/20
This edition of our Catch of the Week series features the successful resolution of a whistleblower suit against neurosurgeon Dr. William Choi and three companies he owned. The defendants agreed to pay the United States $2.35 million to resolve allegations that, for over five years, Dr. Choi received illegal kickbacks from spinal implant device distributors for devices he used in surgeries. The kickbacks rendered...
Opioid Executive Sentenced to Over Five Years in Prison for Role in Healthcare Fraud Scheme
Posted 01/31/20
Insys Therapeutics, an opioid manufacturer whose main product is Subsys, a spray from of fentanyl that is 100 times stronger than morphine and cost tens of thousands a month, is in the news again. The company and its former CEO, John Kapoor, have been facing a mountain of legal issues in the past three years. Last week, in a decision that most of our readers agree with, Kapoor was sentenced to 66 months in prison.
Catch of the Week: Practice Fusion Pays $145 Million for EHR Kickbacks and Misrepresentations about Software
Posted 01/28/20
Healthcare providers talk about the importance of behavioral “nudges” – gentle pushes to encourage healthy choices and positive behaviors. In our Catch of the Week, healthcare providers were nudged to prescribe highly addictive extended-release opioids in a manner that was not consistent with accepted medical standards. Who nudged them? Their own electronic health records system, which was paid to do so by the...