U.S. Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), a long-time proponent of the False Claims Act and an anti-fraud advocate, has recently criticized reports of high-volume prescribers. In particular, Grassley addresses those prescribing extremely large quantities of mental health drugs. Recently, many pharmaceutical companies have agreed to large settlements involving the off-label promotion…
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has settled a False Claims Act case against Minnesota based Center for Diagnostic Imaging which accused the company of Medicare fraud. The radiologic imaging company has agreed to pay the U.S. government $1.2 million to settle part of the allegations in the lawsuit that related…
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is seeking to intervene in a qui tam lawsuit against St. Jude Medical Inc., a manufacturer of pacemakers and other heart devices. The DOJ initially began its investigation in 2005, and this past December decided not to intervene in the case. However, after talking to…
A qui tam action under the False Claims Act brought in South Carolina would not be particularly interesting except for one small fact: the case is actually going to trial. In fact, the case is going to trial for the second time, after a jury found that Tuomey Healthcare System…
Teva Pharmaceuticals has agreed to pay $78 million to settle Medicaid fraud allegations in Florida and Texas. Teva owes the state of Florida $27 million due to alleged violations of the Florida False Claims Act. Teva allegedly reported inflated drug prices to Florida’s Medicaid Program, which caused Florida to overpay…
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced today that it has charged 94 doctors, healthcare company owners, and executives with submitting more than $251 million in false claims to Medicare. The arrests spread across five different states in areas the federal government has deemed fraud hotspots. It was the largest federal…
An Orange County, CA based heart-monitoring services company has agreed to pay the U.S. government $3.6 million to settle allegations that the company overbilled Medicare from 1998-2004. The complaint was first filed in 2004 against National Cardio Labs LLC, its manager Adrienne Stanman, and her husband Robert Parsons. Specifically, the…
The United States has charged Dr. Nijam Azmat and the Satilla Regional Medical Center of Waycross, Georgia with violating the False Claims Act by billing Medicare for services that were of no medical value to federal health program patients. The government alleges that Dr. Azmat and the medical center performed,…