Contact

Click here for a confidential contact or call:

1-347-417-2192
Page 1 of 1

Private Equity Firms Buying Healthcare Companies May Increase Risks to Patients and Lead to More Whistleblower Actions

Posted  01/8/24
Businessman Under Dark Shadow Pointing Finger
Private equity (PE) firms are in the hot seat, particularly when it comes to acquiring and investing in healthcare companies.  According to a recent CNN article, a research study published in JAMA found that “[h]ealth care became more hazardous for patients at hospitals purchased by private equity firms.”  This not only should concern patients and Government enforcers.  It also could be a harbinger of more...

September 22, 2016

A federal jury in Los Angeles convicted the owner of a medical clinic for his role in a health care fraud scheme and for filing false income tax returns. Evidence introduced at trial showed that Michael Huynh, 66, the office manager and part-owner of a medical clinic, provided false prescriptions to a pharmacist and co-conspirator, Farhad N. Dany Sharim, who submitted false claims to insurance companies for drugs that were never dispensed. Once Sharim received payments from the insurance companies, he paid Huynh for the false prescriptions. Trial evidence showed that between January 2004 and November 2009, Huynh received 82 checks from Sharim totaling over $1.1 million. Evidence at trial also demonstrated that Huynh filed false federal tax returns for tax years 2007 through 2011 that underreported the medical clinic’s gross receipts and sales on the corporate tax returns and total income on the individual tax returns. Trial evidence showed underreported income of over $1.6 million. DOJ

April 18, 2016

Miami physician Henry Lora was sentenced to 108 months in prison for his role in a Medicare fraud scheme that caused approximately $30 million in losses.  Lora was the medical director of Miami-area clinic Merfi Corporation and admitted that in exchange for kickbacks and bribes, he and his co-conspirators wrote prescriptions for home health care and other services for Medicare beneficiaries that were not medically necessary or not provided.  He also admitted falsifying patient records to make it appear as if the beneficiaries qualified for these services.  In March 2014, Merfi owner was sentenced to nine years in prison for conspiracy to commit health care fraud.  DOJ