Whistleblower News From The Inside — August 4, 2015

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Idaho anti-whistleblower Ag-Gag law declared unconstitutional -- According to the Court, “[p]rohibiting undercover investigators or whistleblowers from recording an agricultural facility’s operations inevitably suppresses a key type of speech because it limits the information that might later be published or broadcast.”  NYT Pediatric Services of America to pay $6.88M to settle whistleblower charges -- The whistleblowers, Yvette Odumosu and Sheila McCray, charged the company...

DOJ Catch Of The Week -- NuVasive Inc.

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team This week's Department of Justice "Catch of the Week" goes to California-based medical device manufacturer NuVasive Inc.  Yesterday, the company agreed to pay $13.5 million to resolve charges it improperly promoted the company’s CoRoent System for spine surgeries for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.  The settlement also resolves allegations NuVasive paid illegal kickbacks to induce physicians to use the company’s...

Whistleblower News from the Inside -- July 27, 2015

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Owner of Detroit Home Health Care Companies Sentenced to 80 Months in Prison for Role in $12.6 Million Fraud Scheme - A Michigan resident, Mohammed Sadiq, was sentenced to 80 months in prison late yesterday for his leading role in a $12.6 million Medicare fraud and tax fraud scheme.  Sadiq, who owned and directed operations at two home health care companies in Detroit, admitted that,...

Congress Highlights Medicare Part D Plans’ Failure To Prevent Fraud

Fraud in the Medicare Part D prescription drug program is getting the attention of not only the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General (HHS OIG) but also watchdogs on Capitol Hill.  On Tuesday, July 14, 2015, the House of Representatives’ Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing to examine two recent reports from HHS OIG examining improper spending in the Medicare Part D program....

Whistleblower News From The Inside — July 15, 2015

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Whistleblower’s phone call halts child-endangerment on set of Divergent movie sequel.  After a whistleblower’s frantic calls, union representatives stepped in to halt the shooting of chaotic scenes with child actors, some as young as four, scrambling through a gauntlet of 100+ untrained adult extras swinging metal clubs, axes and machetes.  Deadline. Nine defendants charged in scam involving complex, international stock manipulation and money laundering. ...

DOJ Enforcement Spotlight -- Cancer Doctor Farid Fata

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Last Friday, the Department of Justice secured a 45-year prison sentence against the now infamous Detroit-area doctor, Farid Fata.  He was also ordered to forfeit $17.6 million of illegal reimbursements he obtained from Medicare and private insurance companies.  This stems from his guilty plea in September 2014 to violating the False Claims Act with a health care fraud scheme that included administering medically unnecessary...

Whistleblower News From The Inside — July 13, 2015

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Prosecutors go after fraud at Veterans Affairs – One case involves a VA employee taking more than $1.2 million in kickbacks; another involves an employee who stole gravestones from a cemetery to floor his garage.  Washington Post Time to modernize the nursing home system – Officials intend to make sweeping changes to the rules that nursing homes must follow in order to receive payments...

Have We Reached the Final Round In the Government's Tuomey Kickback Case?

The United States won another round in its now almost eight year battle to hold South Carolina-based Tuomey Healthcare System liable for paying doctors illegal kickbacks.  The litigation has been long and procedurally complex, but at bottom, the Government has alleged, and the jury has found, that Tuomey gave a group of doctors unreasonably lucrative employment arrangements to get them to send their patients to Tuomey.  These sweetheart deals also...

In Their Own Words -- McCormack

-- “[Long term care facility] Administrators should be asking hard questions about any financial incentives the pharmacist or their employer may have to promote one drug over another,” McCormack told McKnight's on Tuesday. “Depending on the long-term care facility's financial and operational relationship with the outside pharmacy, there is some risk that the facility could be exposed to liability under the False Claims Act for violations of the Anti-kickback statute...

Whistleblower News from the Inside -- July 9, 2015

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team A third of UK businesses still haven’t heard of the Bribery Act -- A survey by the UK Government found that only two-thirds of small and medium sized businesses had heard of the 2010 Bribery Act, which imposes liability on companies for failure to prevent international bribery.  HM Government Omnicare will settle with DOJ in Depakote kickback case -- Omnicare announced it will settle with...