Health Care Fraud

Federal Jury Convicts Cornell Hospital of Research Grant Fraud

July 23, 2010 | Greene LLP

A federal jury in New York has found Cornell University’s Weill Medical Center and former faculty member Wilfred van Gorp guilty of violating the False Claims Act (FCA) by defrauding the National Institute of Health (NIH) in a research grant application. Weill Medical Center and Dr. van Gorp applied to NIH for a research grant to train fellows in neuropsychology for a career in HIV/AIDS research. The jury found the defendants guilty of violating the False Claims Act by misrepresenting material information in progress reports which were falsified in order to convince NIH to continue the funding.

Although the research grant was supposed to train fellows for a career in HIV/AIDS research, the defendants apparently required the fellows to treat many private pay-for-service patients with other medical issues. Continue reading ›

Teva Pharmaceuticals Settles Medicaid Fraud Case with Information from Rival Company

July 22, 2010 | Greene LLP

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 Teva in reimbursement payments. The Medicaid program reimburses pharmacies for drugs based on the prices reported by drug manufacturers like Teva, and by illegally inflating the prices of its drugs, the company cost each State millions of dollars. Competitor company Ven-a-Care reportedly provided the State Attorney General with information about Teva’s illegal practices. Continue reading ›

Medical Services Company Accused of Billing Medicare for Unperformed Services

July 15, 2010 | Greene LLP

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 government accused National Cardio Labs of violating the False Claims Act by billing for services not actually rendered to patients, services it had already been paid for, and services which it could not perform. Continue reading ›

Dangerous, Unnecessary Surgeries Lead to False Claims Complaint

July 13, 2010 | Greene LLP

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, and sought reimbursement for, services to Medicare patients that were not medically necessary, had no medical value, or even endangered the lives of patients.

Satilla enlisted the services of Dr. Azmat in 2005, and the doctor began performing endovascular procedures – highly specialized procedures that require formal training. However, Dr. Azmat allegedly was never qualified or even competent to perform these procedures. Continue reading ›

Whistleblowers Allege Failure to Supervise Surgeries at Rush University Medical Center

July 9, 2010 | Greene LLP

Two whistleblowers first filed a False Claims Act case against Rush University Medical Center in 2004. While the lawsuit included allegations of many different types of fraud, the United States only intervened with respect to violations of the Stark Law (Rush was accused of entering into improper relationships with physicians). Rush settled the False Claims Act claims related to the Stark Law for $1.5 million, with the whistleblowers receiving $270,760.

While the government was content to accept a settlement for the Stark Law violations, the whistleblowers still want Rush held accountable for other types of fraud they contend Rush committed on the government. Continue reading ›