The office of New York State’s Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, has announced a $13.4 million settlement with New York Downtown Hospital to resolve all claims against the hospital related to an alleged illegal scheme to defraud the state’s Medicaid program. The AG’s Office alleged that the hospital entered in an…
After discovering erroneous billing practices for ambulance services, Maury Regional Hospital (“MRH”), located in Columbia, TN, made a voluntary self-disclosure to federal investigators. The hospital’s self-disclosure led to a swift resolution of allegations that the false claims for payment for ambulance services violated the federal False Claims Act (“FCA”). MRH…
An audit of the claims processing practices of Caremark, a company that merged with CVS to form CVS Caremark in 2007, has led to a whistleblower complaint under the False Claims Act (FCA) alleging potentially billions of dollars in fraud under the Medicare Part D program. The complaint was filed…
Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court voted to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”), the landmark health reform law enacted in 2010. The justices’ ruling in National Federation of Independent Business v Sebelius leaves intact nearly all of the provisions of the law (with the exception of an…
Two former employees of Florida-based Liberty Medical Supply, a supplier of diabetes medication and equipment and a subsidiary of Medco Health Solutions Inc. and Polymedica Corp., have filed a lawsuit against the company and several related subsidiaries under the False Claims Act (“FCA”). The whistleblowers, both of whom held a…
St. Jude Medical, a Canadian medical device manufacturer, announced on Thursday that it would pay $3.65 million as an offer of settlement to dispose of allegations that it was overcharging buyers to replace the company’s pacemakers and defibrillators that were under warranty. The allegations were initially brought by two whistleblowers…
The Center for Diagnostic Imaging, Inc., a radiology and diagnostic company based in X and operating facilities in seven states, has agreed to pay $1.5 million to resolve False Claims Act charges against the company. The charges were brought by two whistleblowers, a former executive of the company and a…
Abbott Labratories Inc., manufacturer of the pharmaceutical drug Depakote, has pleaded guilty to charges that the company misbranded Depakote by promoting unapproved uses of the drug to control schizophrenia as well as agitation and aggression in elderly patient with dementia, when neither use was approved by the Food and Drug…
A federal appeals court in Boston, Massachusetts issued a decision on Monday, reversing a federal district court’s earlier decision in a False Claims Act case filed by a whistleblower against Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, and two doctors heading the process of researching and preparing an application to the National Institutes…
Tenet Healthcare has agreed to pay $42.75 million to resolve claims that facilities owned by the corporation billed Medicare for medically unnecessary rehabilitation services. The False Claims Act prohibits submission of a false claim or actions which cause a false claim to be submitted for money or property in control of…