Pharma Fraud
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Walgreens Settles Whistleblower Suit over Alleged Medi-Cal Fraud
Posted 04/21/17
By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team
Illinois-based drugstore giant Walgreens, with roughly 630 stores in California, agreed to pay $9.86 million to resolve allegations it violated the False Claims Act by knowingly submitting claims to California’s Medi-Cal program not supported by applicable diagnosis and documentation requirements. The Medi-Cal program, administered by the California Department of Health Care...
April 20, 2017
California announced a $9.8 million settlement with Walgreens, one of the largest drugstore chains in the United States. The settlement involved allegations that Walgreens failed to adhere fully to requirements imposed by California law for the dispensing of certain prescriptions drugs under Medi‑Cal. The settlement is the result of lawsuits filed by whistleblowers and investigated and resolved by federal and state prosecutors. The lawsuits alleged that for more than five years, Walgreens falsely certified that it had complied with diagnosis-related requirements for the lawful dispensing of prescriptions to Medi‑Cal patients. Through the Bureau of Medi‑Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse (BMFEA), the Attorney General’s office regularly works with whistleblowers and law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute fraud perpetrated on the Medi‑Cal program. False claims lawsuits pursued by the Attorney General in the last two years have recovered tens of millions of dollars from some of the nation’s largest pharmaceutical companies for allegations of improper marketing, falsifying reports to inflate prices, and other wrongful practices. CAThe Government’s Struggle to Hold Opioid Manufacturers Accountable
Posted 04/3/17
By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team
In 2011 the DEA was focused on fighting the growing opioid epidemic and targeted Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, one of the largest manufacturers of oxycodone. The government alleged that Mallinckrodt had failed to properly report suspicious orders of painkillers that eventually made their way to the black market in Florida. The government contended that Mallinckrodt’s actions...
March 2, 2017
New York announced the sentencing of two pharmacy owners, a supervising pharmacist and ten corporations for defrauding several government-funded healthcare programs, including Medicaid and Medicare. An investigation revealed that on at least eight separate occasions between November 2013 and February 2014, the defendants paid patients hundreds of dollars in cash to forgo their prescription medications, the vast majority of which were to treat HIV. The defendants then submitted false claims to Medicare, Medicaid and Medicaid-managed care organizations and were reimbursed for distributing the medications, despite the fact that they were never dispensed to patients. Tarek Elsayed, 50, of Elmhurst Queens, the co-owner of 184th Street Pharmacy in the Bronx, was sentenced in Bronx County Supreme Court by the Honorable Stephen Barrett to one to three years in state prison. Previously, in August of 2016, Ahmed Hamed, 39, of Elmhurst Queens, the second co-owner of 184th Street Pharmacy, was sentenced to two to six years in state prison. In October of 2016, Mohamed Hassan Ahmed, 38, of Bayside, the supervising pharmacist at 184th Street Pharmacy, was sentenced to one to three years in state prison and was required to surrender his license to practice pharmacy. Collectively, the three defendants stole over $10 million from government-funded health care programs. In addition, the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) reached a $4.1 million civil settlement agreement with defendant Elsayed and a $3.8 million civil settlement agreement with defendant Hamed. NYMajor Insulin Makers Accused of Price Fixing
Posted 01/31/17
By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team
As reported in the New York Times, a group of diabetes patients filed suit yesterday against the three dominant providers of insulin, alleging they systematically raised prices through a price-fixing scheme that imposed on patients “crushing out-of-pocket expenses.” The lawsuit -- brought against Sanofi, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly -- comes only a few months after Senator...