Gordon Schnell and Max Voldman Published in Newsweek on How Whistleblowers are Key to Reining in Prescription Drug Costs

Newsweek published an OpEd by Constantine Cannon whistleblower lawyers Gordon Schnell and Max Voldman on the need to expand the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program to Medicare.  The piece was prompted by DOJ's recent $235 million settlement with U.K. and St. Louis-based pharma company Mallinckrodt for allegedly violating the Medicaid rebate rule. On the books since 1990, the rule requires drug companies to rebate state Medicaid programs for price increases that...

Payments News Update – March 18, 2022

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: CFPB’s Chopra Blasts Potential Card Hikes Payments Dive – March 14, 2022 The director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said fee hikes by the card companies would add "insult to injury" at a time of inflation. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra minced no words Friday in a rare TV appearance, offering a critical view of the state of the U.S. payments sector....

Payments News Update – March 4, 2022

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Merchants Payments Coalition Launches Campaign to Fight Swipe-Fee Increase Slated for April ConvenienceStore News – March 2, 2022 The Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) has unveiled an advertising campaign to educate Congress and other policymakers on increasing the swipe fees credit card networks and big banks charge merchants to process transactions. According to MPC, the campaign comes as Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc., which comprise nearly 80 percent...

Top 5 Reasons Why Nurses Make Great Whistleblowers

Nurses are rightly getting a lot of attention lately for the courageous and essential role they are playing on the front-line during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Whether in hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, or as home health workers, nurses are finally “learning what they are worth,” even as private equity firms seek to profit from nurses’ increased wage-earning power.  As reported by STAT, Congress is now investigating whether travel nursing agencies, controlled...

Catch of the Week: A Tale of Two Cons

The start of February 2022 brought resolutions in two different COVID-19 fraud cases, one in the Paycheck Protection Program and one in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program. Both involved scammers with previous criminal records who fraudulently obtained COVID relief money. The Department of Justice continues to prioritize enforcement against fraudsters who take advantage of the Paycheck Protection Program, even when the amounts involved are relatively low. On February 7, the...

DOJ Announces $5.7 Billion in FCA Recoveries in Fiscal Year 2021, with Boost from Purdue Settlement Claim

DOJ has released its annual announcement of recoveries in civil cases involving fraud and false claims against the government, and the total recoveries are eye-popping: $5.65 billion in settlements and judgments.  These recoveries make FY2021 the second largest year in False Claims Act history, and the largest since 2014. As in prior years, healthcare fraud dominated, with more than $5 billion of the total recoveries – 90% of the total. ...

Payments News Update – December 17, 2021

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: UK Government Outlines Plans for Regulation of Buy Now Pay Later Industry The Spectator – December 15, 2021 The buy now pay later industry has exploded in recent years, with the industry now worth $100 billion (circa £70 billion). Also known as BNPL, it is used by shoppers to delay payments on any kind of product from champagne to clothes and kitchens, and the option...

November 16, 2021

Richard Ayvazyan was sentence to 17 years in prison, his wife Marietta Terabelian to six years, and his brother Artur Ayvazyan to five years, following their convictions at trial on charges related to their scheme to fraudulently obtain more than $20 million in Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan COVID-19 relief funds.  The defendants used dozens of false identities to submit fraudulent applications for approximately 150 PPP and...

Recent Settlements Show Kickbacks are Always a DOJ Enforcement Priority

The Department of Justice regularly highlights the areas of fraudulent conduct it intends to target as enforcement priorities.  These identified enforcement priorities tend to cover burgeoning areas of fraud or particular misbehavior especially ripe or prevalent because of the particular times we live in.  As might be expected, DOJ's current listing of priorities includes fraud related to the pandemic, opioids, the elderly, electronic health records, telehealth services, and as most...

Next Up: Infrastructure Oversight Week?

More than four years after “Infrastructure Week” was first announced by President Trump back in June 2017, Congress has finally passed an infrastructure bill and President Biden will soon sign it into law.  A staggering $1.2 trillion in taxpayer money will soon start flowing from the U.S. Treasury to private contractors to upgrade the nation’s roads, bridges, power grid, and other public works.  Is it too soon to start talking...