Anti-Kickback and Stark

May 11, 2015

Acting New Jersey Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced guilty plea of Rehan Zuberi and his wife Humara Paracha to charges they bribed dozens of doctors in exchange for referrals, worth several million dollars, to the medical imaging centers they owned and operated under the umbrella group Diagnostic Imaging Affiliates which managed numerous diagnostic imaging facilities throughout northern and central New Jersey. NJ

May 8, 2015

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced an agreement in principle to settle kickback claims against Medco Health Solutions subsidiary Accredo Health Group, Inc. to resolve allegations that Accredo recommended the drug Exjade to Medicaid patients in exchange for kickbacks from Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation which markets the drug. Under the settlement, Accredo will pay $60 million to the federal government, New York, and several other states. About $3.4 million of the settlement will resolve claims relating to New York’s Medicaid program. In January 2014, another pharmacy, BioScrip, Inc., agreed to pay $15 million to resolve similar claims. The case against Novartis is ongoing. NY

March 16, 2015

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced that New York along with 49 other states and the District of Columbia have reached a settlement with global pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo, Inc. to resolves allegations that Daiichi violated the False Claims Act by using lavish meals and speaker programs to improperly induce physicians to prescribe the drugs Azor, Benicar, Tribenzor and Welchol. Under the agreement, Daiichi agreed to pay the US and state Medicaid programs $39 million. The allegations originated in a whistleblower lawsuit filed by former Daiichi sales representative Kathy Fragoules under the qui tam provisions of the federal and New York State False Claims Acts. She will receive $6.1 million of the federal recovery and an undisclosed portion of the state recoveries. NY

January 20, 2015

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley announced South Shore Physician Hospital Organization will pay $1.77M to settle allegations of operating a recruitment grant program through which it paid kickbacks to its physician members in exchange for patient referrals. MA

January 7, 2015

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that Florida, along with California, Colorado, Kentucky, and Ohio and the federal government, entered a $22 million national settlement with DaVita Healthcare Partners, Inc., one of the leading providers of dialysis services in the US. The settlement resolves allegations originating in a whistleblower lawsuit that DaVita paid illegal kickbacks to induce the referral of patients to its dialysis clinics, causing false claims to be submitted to the Medicaid program. DaVita will pay Florida $5.6 million in restitution and other recoveries. FL