Whistleblower Insider Blog

Blackstone Medical Caught “Entertaining” Physicians in Exchange for Business

Posted 11/13/12

By Marlene Koury Orthofix International NV has agreed to pay $30 million to settle allegations that its subsidiary, Blackstone Medical Inc., ran a seven year long kickback scheme ranging from sham consulting agreements to providing physicians with adult “entertainment” to induce them into ordering their products. Click here to see Department of Justice press release and here for the complaint. Blackstone...

Tagged in: Healthcare Fraud, Other Government Health Programs,

Fudging the Studies -- Senate Report Links Medtronic to Latest Case of Ghostwriting Medical Journal Articles

Posted 11/9/12

By Gordon Schnell In a scathing report it recently released, the Senate Finance Committee charged medical device manufacturer Medtronic, Inc. with engaging in some fairly dastardly deeds to promote its once top-selling bone growth product called InFuse. The alleged misconduct centers around the company paying off doctors to author medical journal pieces that downplayed or downright ignored serious risks and...

Tagged in: Healthcare Fraud, Medical Devices and DME,

Ratting Out the Snitch - The Troubling Underbelly of the NFL Bounty Scandalffea

Posted 11/7/12

By Gordon Schnell (published in Sports Business Journal) It is all about player safety and protecting the integrity of the game. That was the central message coming out of the NFL's recent pronouncement of punishment against the four Saints players implicated in the now infamous bounty scandal -- Scott Fujita, Anthony Hargrove, Will Smith and Jonathan Vilma. Safety, integrity, fair play -- it was like a mantra...

A Tale of Two Whistleblower Offices -- The Very Different Approaches of the SEC and IRS

Posted 10/26/12

By Gordon Schnell By now, we all have heard about the $104 million awarded to former UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld for blowing the whistle on the Swiss banking giant's scheme to help thousands of Americans use offshore accounts to cheat the IRS. See The IRS Whistleblower Office Gets Serious With Record Setting Award. It was the largest whistleblower award on record and particularly notable as it came from an...

Tagged in: IRS Whistleblower Reward Program, SEC Whistleblower Reward Program,

Fixing a Broken System -- The Institute of Medicine's Groundbreaking Report on Runaway Waste in American Healthcare

Posted 10/25/12

By Gordon Schnell There is a lot of chatter these days about trillion dollar deficits and multi-point plans to get the economy back in shape. President Obama and Governor Romney stick to their respective talking points about their opponent's critical failings and how they will do things better. The divisions that separate these candidates and their followers, and the country as a whole, have not been this...

Tagged in: Healthcare Fraud,

CVS Sub Caught Duping Consumers in Prescription Drug Purchases

Posted 10/22/12

By Marlene Koury In one of the first False Claims Act settlements involving Medicare's "Part D" prescription drug program, CVS Caremark subsidiary, RxAmerica, agreed to pony up $5.25 million to resolve charges that it submitted false pricing information to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). This is the government body that oversees the Medicare and Medicaid programs. It also makes available the...

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Part D, Pharma Fraud,

Deducting the Cost of Fraud -- The Widespread Treatment of Government Settlements as a Mere Business Expense

Posted 10/17/12

By Gordon Schnell With its $9 billion take, it has been a record year for the government in terms of its recoveries under the False Claims Act. See Banner Year for Whistleblowers . . . . There was the $3 billion settlement with GlaxoSmithKline over its marketing misdeeds with Paxil and Wellbutrin and its failure to report safety data for Avandia. See Big Pharma Strikes Again . . . . There was the $1.5...

Tagged in: Healthcare Fraud,

Banner Year for Whistleblowers and the Public, No End in Sight

Posted 10/12/12

By Jason Enzler Fiscal Year 2012 just wound up and the results are in for the government’s total recoveries in False Claims Act cases: $9 billion in fines and penalties. This is over twice that of last year’s tally of $4 billion. And all but one of the top 25 recoveries involved cases where individuals blew the whistle. This past year also included some other notable firsts:

The largest recovery in...

Tagged in: Statistics,

The Long and Winding Road to Whistleblower Protections for Government Employees

Posted 10/5/12

By Marlene Koury On September 28, the House of Representatives unanimously passed the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (“WPEA”), various versions of which have been making the rounds in Congress for the past decade. The WPEA includes 10 reforms to the existing Whistleblower Protection Act (“WPA”), passed in 1989, which was supposed to protect from retaliation federal employees who report...

Tagged in: Whistleblower Protection Laws,

The Fraud Behind the Fraud of Off-Label Drug Marketing

Posted 10/5/12

By Gordon Schnell It has been one of the most common means for drug companies to get around what can be the very rigorous and time-consuming process of securing FDA approval for selling drugs. That is, taking drugs that the FDA has approved as safe and effective for one particular use and marketing them to the medical community and the public for an entirely different set of uses. This so-called off-label...

Tagged in: Healthcare Fraud, Off-Label and Unapproved Use, Pharma Fraud,

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Blackstone Medical Caught “Entertaining” Physicians in Exchange for Business

Fudging the Studies -- Senate Report Links Medtronic to Latest Case of Ghostwriting Medical Journal Articles

Ratting Out the Snitch - The Troubling Underbelly of the NFL Bounty Scandalffea

A Tale of Two Whistleblower Offices -- The Very Different Approaches of the SEC and IRS

Fixing a Broken System -- The Institute of Medicine's Groundbreaking Report on Runaway Waste in American Healthcare

CVS Sub Caught Duping Consumers in Prescription Drug Purchases

Deducting the Cost of Fraud -- The Widespread Treatment of Government Settlements as a Mere Business Expense

Banner Year for Whistleblowers and the Public, No End in Sight

The Long and Winding Road to Whistleblower Protections for Government Employees

The Fraud Behind the Fraud of Off-Label Drug Marketing

Learn about Whistleblower Rewards Programs

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Blackstone Medical Caught “Entertaining” Physicians in Exchange for Business

Fudging the Studies -- Senate Report Links Medtronic to Latest Case of Ghostwriting Medical Journal Articles

Ratting Out the Snitch - The Troubling Underbelly of the NFL Bounty Scandalffea

A Tale of Two Whistleblower Offices -- The Very Different Approaches of the SEC and IRS

Fixing a Broken System -- The Institute of Medicine's Groundbreaking Report on Runaway Waste in American Healthcare

CVS Sub Caught Duping Consumers in Prescription Drug Purchases

Deducting the Cost of Fraud -- The Widespread Treatment of Government Settlements as a Mere Business Expense

Banner Year for Whistleblowers and the Public, No End in Sight

The Long and Winding Road to Whistleblower Protections for Government Employees

The Fraud Behind the Fraud of Off-Label Drug Marketing

Learn about Whistleblower Rewards Programs

Newsletter

Subscribe to receive email updates from the Constantine Cannon blogs

Sign up for: