Whistleblower News from the Inside - September 30, 2014

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Redemption for VA whistleblowers with settlement of retaliation claims — The Office of Special Counsel helped three whistleblowers at the Department of Veterans Affairs settle whistleblower retaliation claims relating to their disclosures of mismanagement at the Phoenix VA Medical Center, with at least two of the whistleblower receiving promotions.  Washington Post Three reasons why women are more likely than men to be whistleblowers — Fortune Gov...

DOJ Catch of the Week -- A Plus Home Health Care

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team This week's Department of Justice "catch of the week" goes to Fort Lauderdale based A Plus Home Health Care Inc.  On Wednesday, the home health care company -- and its owners, Tracy Nemerofsky and her father, Stephen Nemerofsky -- agreed to pay $1.65 million to settle charges A Plus paid spouses of referring physicians for sham marketing positions to induce patient referrals.  The government...

Whistleblower News from the Inside - September 9, 2014

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team DOJ sues for kickbacks and unnecessary spinal surgeries -- The DOJ files two False Claims Act complaints against Reliance Medical Systems for a kickback scheme in which physicians were paid to use Reliance spinal implants in the surgeries they performed, some of which were medically unnecessary.  DOJ DOJ investigating laboratories for possible kickback schemes -- The Wall Street Journal reports on Health Diagnostic Laboratory,...

Case Tests Tension Between False Claims Act and First Amendment

By Marlene Koury The much claimed but never proven tension between the False Claims Act (“FCA”) and First Amendment is being tested again in United States v. Millenium Pharmaceuticals Inc., currently pending in the Eastern District of California.  The whistleblower, a former pharmaceutical sales representative, alleges in his complaint that Millennium Pharmaceuticals illegally promoted the off-label use of Integrilin, a drug used to prevent blood clots during surgery.  The government...

Whistleblower News from the Inside - August 8, 2014

Russia grants Snowden three more years – NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden gets another three years asylum in Russia with the added bonus of being able to travel freely within the country and travel abroad for no longer than three months.  GAP Oracle case to test bounds of Oregon’s False Claims Act? – Legal experts say that Oregon faces uphill battle against Oracle Corp. in their suit over the health insurance...

Halifax Whistleblower Speaks Out

By Marlene Koury The whistleblower responsible for the record-setting Halifax Health Medical Center settlement spoke out about blowing the whistle on massive health care fraud.  Elin Kunz was working in the hospital's compliance department – a job she had held for 16 years – when she says she discovered some disturbing information that eventually led her to blow the whistle. She discovered that the hospital was admitting patients without medical...

DC Circuit In KBR Whistleblower Case Tightens Attorney-Client Shield for Internal Investigations

By Gordon Schnell In a shot heard round the business world, a DC district court judge in March denied attorney-client privilege protection to documents prepared in connection with an internal company investigation. The judge found the privilege did not apply because the investigation was mandated by government regulation and not simply an exercise in company discretion. The DC Circuit last week -- in In re: Kellogg Brown & Root --...

Whistleblower News from the Inside - June 24, 2014

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Home health agency pleads guilty to kickback scheme --  The owner of Nestor’s Health Services in Miami pleaded guilty in a $6.5 million health care fraud scheme involving paying kickbacks to referring physicians and not providing services or providing services that were not medically necessary.  DOJ Whistleblower says VA covered up deaths – A new whistleblower in the Phoenix VA case says that the records of...

Whistleblower News from the Inside - June 20, 2014

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team False Claims Act lawsuit against Lance Armstrong can proceed -- A federal judge has rejected Lance Armstrong's attempt to dismiss a $100 million False Claims Act lawsuit filed against him.  USA Today NJ arrests owner of Diagnostic Imaging Affiliates for Medicaid Fraud -- Rehan Zuberi and 12 associates are charged with bribing doctors to send patients for MRIs, PET scans and other unnecessary tests involving 30,000...

May 28, 2014

Medical device manufacturer Medtronic Inc. agreed to pay $9.9M to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act that the company used various types of illegal kickbacks to induce physicians to use pacemakers and defibrillators made and sold by Medtronic. Among the the illegal inducements the government charged Medtronic with using were: 1) paying implanting physicians to speak at events intended to increase the flow of referral business; 2) developing marketing/business...