March 21, 2019

Nonprofit healthcare organization MedStar Health Inc. has agreed to pay $35 million to the United States to settle two qui tam lawsuits alleging violations of the False Claims Act at two of its hospitals in Baltimore. According to the first complaint, filed by three cardiac surgeons, MedStar paid illegal remuneration to MidAtlantic Cardiovascular Associates (MACVA) to induce referrals of Medicare patients. The second complaint, filed by former patients, alleged that...

February 27, 2019

A Florida-based home health agency owner, Alexander Ros Lazo, has been sentenced to over 7 years in prison and ordered to pay $8.6 million in restitution for defrauding Medicare. In exchange for the referral of Medicare beneficiaries to his company, T.L.C. Health Services, Dos Lazo paid kickbacks to co-conspirators and caused his co-conspirators to submit billing for physical therapy services performed by an unlicensed practitioner, Misleady Ibarra. Along with Ros...

February 22, 2019

Marketers, doctors, lawyers, and medical service provider defendants were sentenced this week for their roles in a multi-million dollar California worker's compensation fraud scheme in the San Diego area.  The defendants recruited patients and referred them to co-defendant attorneys to file fraudulent claims on their behalf and medical providers who performed often unnecessary and painful medical procedures for which they would then bill insurers including California Workers' Compensation.  Ronald Grusd,...

February 22, 2019

The owner of New York Pharmacy, Inc., NYC Pharmacy Inc., and NY Healthfirst Pharmacy Inc., pharmacist Hin T. Wong, has pleaded guilty to criminal charges arising from millions of dollars in false billing to New York's Medicaid program for HIV drugs.  Wong billed Medicaid for medications that she never dispensed, a scheme disclosed by an investigation confirming that Wong's pharmacies did not purchase a sufficient inventory of medication from licensed...

WATCH THIS SPACE: DOJ and DOE Call Out Lockheed Martin for Self-Dealing at Hanford Plutonium Site

The nation’s largest toxic cleanup site has suffered another setback, this time not in the cleanup itself but in alleged self-dealing, corruption, kickbacks, and lies, costing taxpayers over $60M, according to a complaint filed by DOJ against Mission Support Alliance, Lockheed Martin Services (and a subsidiary), and Jorge Francisco Armijo. The Hanford Nuclear Site in central Washington state made plutonium for decades resulting in over 150 underground tanks of radioactive...

February 14, 2019

Compounding pharmacy Vital Life Institute LLC, formerly known as AgeVital Pharmacy LLC, will pay $775,000 to resolve claims that the company and its principals paid kickbacks to third-party marketing companies to solicit prospective patients, regardless of the patients' needs.  The investigation was initiated by the filing of a qui tam complaint under the False Claims Act by Manfred Knopf, who received unwanted compounded medications from AgeVital that were billed to...

February 12, 2019

Michael Frey of Ft. Myers, Florida, a physician specializing in pain management, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for his role in an illegal kickback scheme.  Frey was a co-owner of Advanced Pain Management Specialists, P.A., and received kickbacks from A&G Spinal Solutions, LLC (which made checks payable to his wife) for a share of its profits from patient referrals; from a compound pharmacy provider; and as "speaker fees"...

February 6, 2019

Abbott Labs has agreed to pay a total of $25 million to settle allegations of paying kickbacks to healthcare professionals in exchange for promotion of its drug, and inappropriately marketing its drug, TriCor, for cardiovascular events not approved by the FDA. The case was initiated by the State of North Carolina and joined by California, Illinois, Nevada, Maryland, Michigan, and Texas, as well as the federal government. NC AG

January 28, 2019

Avanti Hospitals LLC and six of its owners will pay $8.1 million to settle claims that they violated the False Claims Act by submitting, or causing Avanti’s subsidiary, Memorial Hospital of Gardena, to submit false claims to the Medicare and Medicaid programs for medical services referred by a physician who received kickbacks and other improper payments from Gardena and other Avanti affiliates. The settlement partially resolves allegations originally brought in...

January 28, 2019

Norma Zayas, of Miami, was sentenced to 51 months in prison for her role in a $4.66 million health care fraud scheme involving several Miami-area home health agencies, including Sunshine Home Health Services Inc., Empire Home Health Agency Inc., Mildred & Marce Home Health Care Services Inc., and Nursing Care PRN Inc., which purported to provide home health services to Medicare patients. Zayas must also pay $4,658,241.00 in restitution and...