Top-10 Whistleblower Successes For 2015
By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team
Here is our look-back at the top-10 whistleblower successes under the False Claims Act for 2015 (based on amounts recovered).
10. COMMUNITY HEALTH SYSTEMS — Robert Baker, former revenue manager of Tennessee-based Community Health Systems Professional Services Corporation, received a whistleblower reward of roughly $18.7 million from the $75 million False Claims Act settlement resolving allegations Community Health and three affiliated New Mexico hospitals made illegal donations to county governments which were used to fund the state share of Medicaid payments to the hospitals. Click here for more.
9. VMWARE — Dane Smith, a former vice president of the Americas at VMware Inc. received an undisclosed whistleblower award from the $75.5 million VMware and Carahsoft Technology Corporation agreed to pay to settle charges they violated the False Claims Act by misrepresenting their commercial pricing practices and overcharging the government on VMware software products and related services. Click here for more.
8. EDUCATION MANAGEMENT — Several whistleblowers collectively received a whistleblower award of $11.3 million from the $95.5 million Pittsburgh-based for-profit education company Education Management Corp. agreed to pay to resolves allegations it violated the federal False Claims Act and several state False Claims Acts by falsely certifying it was in compliance with Title IV of the Higher Education Act and parallel state statutes. Click here for more.
7. ADVENTIST HEALTH — Former Adventist Health System employees Michael Payne, Melissa Church and Gloria Pryor received an undisclosed whistleblower award from the $115 million Adventist agreed to pay to settle allegations it violated the False Claims Act by maintaining improper compensation arrangements with referring physicians and by miscoding claims. Click here for more.
6. WARNER CHILCOTT — Two former sales representatives of Warner Chilcott Sales, a subsidiary of pharmaceutical manufacturer Warner Chilcott, received a whistleblower award of approximately $22.9 million from the $125 million the company agreed to pay to resolve its criminal and civil liability arising from illegally marketing the drugs Actonel, Asacol, Atelvia, Doryx, Enablex, Estrace and Loestrin in violation of the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute. Click here for more.
5. CARDIAC CASES — Leatrice Ford Richards, a cardiac nurse, and Thomas Schuhmann, a health care reimbursement consultant have so far received a whistleblower award of more than $38 million from the more than $250 million in settlements the government has obtained from 457 hospitals in 43 states relating to cardiac devices implanted in Medicare patients in violation of Medicare coverage requirements. Click here for more.
4. MILLENNIUM HEALTH — Several whistleblowers shared a whistleblower award of $32 million from the $256 million Millennium Health (formerly Millennium Laboratories) agreed to pay to resolve charges it violated the False Claims Act by billing Medicare for medically unnecessary urine drug and genetic testing and violated the Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute through improper financial payments and inducements. Click here for more.
3. NOVARTIS — David Kester will receive an undisclosed whistleblower award from the $390 million Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. agreed to pay to resolve charges it violated the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute by giving kickbacks to specialty pharmacies in return for recommending two of its drugs, Exjade and Myfortic. Click here for more.
2. DAVITA — Dr. Alon Vanier and nurse Daniel Barbir received an undisclosed whistleblower award from the $450 million DaVita Healthcare Partners agreed to pay to settle charges it violated the False Claims Act by purposely creating and then billing the government for unnecessary waste in administering the drugs Zemplar and Venofer to dialysis patients. Click here for more.
1. TRINITY INDUSTRIES — Josh Harman received a whistleblower award of nearly $19 million from the $663 million highway guardrail maker Trinity Industries was ordered to pay for violating the False Claims Act by defrauding the Federal Highway Administration by making a critical change to the dimensions of its ET-Plus guardrail but failing to tell federal regulators as required by law. Click here for more.
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