November 24, 2015

In a series of related cases, a former hospital CFO, two orthopedic surgeons and two others have been charged in long-running health care fraud schemes that illegally referred thousands of patients for spinal surgeries and generated nearly $600 million in fraudulent billings over an eight-year period. The schemes involved tens of millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks to dozens of doctors, chiropractors and others. As a result of the illegal...

DOJ Enforcement Spotlight -- Novartis Settles Whistleblower Kickback Case for $390M

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team The Department of Justice continues its recent streak of False Claims Act wins with its $390 million settlement Friday with Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. resolving charges the pharmaceutical giant gave kickbacks to specialty pharmacies in return for recommending two of its drugs, Exjade and Myfortic.  Of the $370 million, roughly $287 million will go to the federal government and $83 million to the settling states. ...

Whistleblower News From The Inside — November 23, 2015

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Doctor compensation likely to be issue in more FCA suits -- Recent settlements by hospitals that overcompensated physicians to induce referrals may be the beginning of a trend.  And whistleblowers are driving the Justice Dept.’s enforcement.  Modern Healthcare University of Florida will pay $20 million to settle grant fraud suit -- The government alleged that the University misused grants from the Dept. of Health & Human...

Whistleblower News From The Inside — November 11, 2015

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Russian doping whistleblower points at Kenya and Ethiopia – The whistleblower who came forward with allegations of a state sponsored doping program in Russian athletics thinks the World Anti-Doping Agency should examine other countries for similar practices.  The Guardian Home-health care agency owners indicted for $13 million Medicare fraud – Ebong Tilong and Marie Neba have been charged with conspiracy to use their Houston-based...

Whistleblower News From The Inside — November 9, 2015

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Engineer-whistleblower at Volkswagen behind new revelations of cheating on CO2 testing -- Under a new chief executive promising a new management culture, Volkswagen admits that it was an insider who recently revealed to internal investigators that employees had manipulated carbon dioxide and fuel-economy tests, affecting some 800,000 cars.  NYT The pain isn’t over for compounding pharmacies suspected of falsely billing military health insurance program -- Although...

Whistleblower News From The Inside — October 30, 2015

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Nearly 500 Hospitals pay $250m to resolve cardiac implantation whistleblower case -- The DOJ reached 70 settlements involving 457 hospitals in 43 states for more than $250 million related to cardiac devices that were implanted in Medicare patients in violation of Medicare coverage requirements relating to satisfying certain waiting periods before performing the implantation surgery.   DOJ Warner Chilcott pleads guilty to felony health care...

DOJ Catch Of The Week -- Warner Chilcott

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team This week's Department of Justice "Catch of the Week" goes to Warner Chilcott US Sales LLC, a subsidiary of pharmaceutical manufacturer Warner Chilcott PLC.  Yesterday, the company agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge of health care fraud as part of a global settlement in which Warner Chilcott agreed to pay $125 million to resolve its criminal and civil liability arising from illegally...

Whistleblower News From The Inside — October 27, 2015

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Novartis to pay $390M to settle kickback claims -- The payment will settle US allegations the drugmaker used kickbacks to specialist pharmacies to push sales of Novartis drugs.  FT Senator presses Navy on whistleblower retaliation -- "Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) is pushing the Navy for information on an admiral who allegedly retaliated against whistleblowers and faced no reprisal."  The Hill Valeant denies Enron-like fraud...

Whistleblower News From The Inside — October 20, 2015

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Millennium Health to pay $256 million to settle whistleblower charges -- The whistleblower and government claimed the lab testing company violated the False Claims Act by billing Medicare for medically unnecessary urine drug and genetic testing and for providing kickbacks to physicians for referrals.  DOJ Citigroup accused of improperly avoiding $800M in New York State taxes -- Eric B. Rasmusen, a professor of business...

Whistleblower News From The Inside — October 19, 2015

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team United States Resolves $237 Million False Claims Act Judgment against South Carolina Hospital that Made Illegal Payments to Referring Physicians -- The Department of Justice announced today that it has resolved a $237 million judgment, secured after a trial in 2013, against Tuomey Healthcare System for illegally billing the Medicare program for services referred by physicians with whom the hospital had improper financial relationships. ...