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FCA State

This archive displays posts tagged as relevant to state and local False Claims Acts. You may also be interested in the following pages:

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Catch of the Week: B&H Photo Video Sued by NY State for Tax Fraud

Posted  11/15/19
Modern mobile devices
This week’s Catch of the Week brings us back to the Big Apple, where New York Attorney General Letitia James joined a whistleblower lawsuit yesterday accusing the nation’s largest non-chain photo and video equipment retailer, B&H Photo Video, of tax fraud. The suit claims that long-time camera and electronics retailer B&H, which had more than $3 billion in revenue last year, knowingly failed to pay over $7...

November 8, 2019

Two New York City real estate development companies, Mica Gabe Brooklyn LLC and Brooklyn Warehouse 180 LLC, will pay $3 million to resolve claims that they secured a New York tax break, Section 421-a, by falsely stating that building service employees would be paid prevailing wages when, in fact, employees hired at the buildings were paid less than the wages required by law.  The $3 million settlement consists of $2.5 million in damages under Section 421-a and the New York False Claims Act, and $415,000 in back wages.  The investigation was initiated with the filing of a whistleblower complaint under the NY FCA by local union 32BJ SEIU, which will receive a portion of the damages as a whistleblower reward.  NY

October 28, 2019

The State of Illinois has reached a settlement with more than a dozen drug manufacturers alleged to have published inflated "average wholesale prices" for drugs whose purchase was reimbursed by Illinois's Medicaid program at prices based on those false AWPs.  The settlement for $242 million includes Abbott Laboratories, Inc.; Aventis Pharmaceuticals Inc.; Aventis Behring LLC, n/k/a ZLB Behring; B. Braun Medical Inc.; Forest Laboratories, Inc.; GlaxoSmithKline LLC; Johnson & Johnson, Inc.; Janssen Pharmaceutical Products, LP; McNeil-PPC, Inc.; Ortho Biotech Products, LP; Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, Inc.; Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation; Pfizer Inc.; Pharmacia Corporation; and TAP Pharmaceutical Products, Inc.  In total, Illinois has settled inflated AWP claims against more than four dozen manufacturers (see, e.g., January 2019 settlement with TEVA Pharmaceuticals), recovering $678 million in total.  IL AG  

New York Poised to Become One of Most Whistleblower-Friendly Places

Posted  10/17/19
Child Looking Through Telescope of New York Building
As anonymous whistleblowers make national headlines daily, so do the attacks on their integrity and calls to reveal their identity. In order to combat the chilling effect on the courageous individuals who report fraud or misconduct, New Yorkers—both at the state and city level—are doubling down on whistleblower protections and encouraging observers of corruption to come forward. Lat week, New York Attorney...

October 4, 2019

Southern California-based Retina Institute of California Medical Group (RIC), its former CEO, and several of its physicians have agreed to pay the State of California and United States $6.65 million to settle alleged violations of state and federal False Claims Acts.  According to former administrators Bobbette Smith and Susan Rogers, between 2006 and 2017, the ophthalmology group improperly billed Medicare and Medicaid for unnecessary and unperformed eye exams, upcoded simple exams using codes normally reserved for emergency conditions, and waived mandatory co-payments and deductibles to induce patient referrals.  Smith and Rogers will receive a relator’s share, which remains to be determined.  USAO CDCA

Florida Pharma Whistleblower Case Results in FCA Settlement by Private Equity Firm

Posted  09/27/19
pill container spilled over with pills in the form of a dollar sign
Last week, the government announced that compounding pharmacy Diabetic Care Rx LLC, known as Patient Care America (“PCA”), its executives, and the private equity firm managing the pharmacy Riordan, Lewis & Haden Inc., had agreed to pay over $21 million to settle allegations they violated the False Claims Act (“FCA”) by executing a kickback scheme to generate referrals of TRICARE patients. The allegations...

September 26, 2019

Pharmaceutical manufacturer Avanir Pharmaceuticals will pay approximately $116 million to resolve civil and criminal charges related to its marketing of Nuedextra for off-label purposes and payment of kickbacks to prescribers and others.  The government alleged that Avanir marketed Nuedextra to long-term care facilities, suggesting that it could be used as an alternative to anti-psychotics for dementia patients, even though Nuedextra had only been approved by the FDA for treatment of particular symptoms secondary to a neurologic disease or brain injury.  In addition, Avanir provided certain physicians and other healthcare professionals with unlawful remuneration in the form of money, honoraria, travel, and food to induce them to write prescriptions for Nuedexta. The civil settlement for $103 million, which includes a five-year corporate integrity agreement, resolves whistleblower actions brought under federal and state False Claims Acts by former Avanir employees Kevin Manieri, Duane Arnold, and Mark Shipman.  Manieri will receive $12.4 million, and Arnold and Shipman will receive $5.4 million. In addition to the civil settlement, Avanir will pay a criminal penalty of $7.8 million, forfeit $5.1 million, and enter into a deferred prosecution agreement admitting to payment of kickbacks and requiring cooperation in ongoing in ongoing criminal investigations of individuals involved in marketing and prescribing Nuedextra.  Indictments against four individuals, including former Avanir employees and one of the top prescribers of Nuedexta in the country, were announced, charging the individuals with conspiracy to solicit, receive, offer and pay health care kickbacks.  DOJ

Continued Consolidation in Jail Healthcare Puts Everyone at Risk

Posted  09/19/19
By Sarah “Poppy” Alexander
Jails around the country are responsible for providing for the health and safety of approximately 612,000 people.  Many of these individuals suffer from debilitating conditions, including mental health crises, drug withdrawal, disabilities, and chronic health conditions.  As such, the consistent provision of health care is a critical part of the daily work of any jail. An increasing number of jails are deciding...

Is Data the Future of Whistleblowing?

Posted  08/28/19
Two recent decisions, one in California and the other in Texas, might be signaling a new frontier in False Claims Act (FCA) litigation: the data-driven whistleblower. Both cases are brought by the same whistleblower, Integra. Integra is not a typical whistleblower, which are generally corporate insiders or other employees of a company that is accused of defrauding the government. Instead, Integra is a corporation that...
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