Christiana Care Health System (CCHS) has agreed to pay the United States and the State of Delaware $3.3 Million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit that alleged that CCHS paid kickbacks to, and entered into improper self-referral relationships, with a physicians’ practice located in New Castle, Delaware.
The Houston Independent School District has agreed to relinquish millions of dollars in requests for federal funds and to pay a total of $850,000 as part of a civil settlement relating to allegations that the school district violated the False Claims Act in connection with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) E-Rate Program, the Justice Department recently announced.
The United States and the State of New York have entered into settlement agreements with three home health agencies to resolve allegations that the agencies submitted false claims to the New York Medicaid and Medicare Programs.
The New York Medicaid Program provides coverage for home health aides only if those aides have valid certificates showing that they received proper training.
St. John’s Health System, headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has agreed to pay the United States $13,229,348.88 to settle allegations that it submitted claims to Medicare and Medicaid that were tainted by the hospital’s financial relationships with referring physicians.
Federal law prohibits health care providers like St. John’s from billing the federal healthcare program for referrals from doctors with whom the providers have a financial relationship,
Chevron Corporation, Texaco, Unocal, Inc. and their affiliates (the Chevron Companies), have agreed to pay the United States $45,569.584.74 to resolve claims that they violated the False Claims Act by knowingly underpaying royalties owed on natural gas produced from federal and Indian leases.
Responsibility for overseeing the collection of royalties on federal and Indian leases lies with the Minerals Management Service (MMS) of the U.S.
The University of Phoenix has agreed to pay $67.5 million to the United States to resolve allegations that its student recruitment policies violated the False Claims Act. Two former University of Phoenix employees alleged that the University accepted federal student financial aid in violation of statutory and regulatory provisions that prohibit post-secondary schools from paying admissions counselors certain forms of incentive based compensation tied to the number of students recruited.
The Visiting Physicians Association (“VPA”), which provides home health services in Michigan, Ohio, Georgia and Wisconsin, will pay the United States and the state of Michigan $9.5 million to settle allegations that the VPA violated the False Claims Act by submitting false claims to Medicare, TRICARE and the Michigan Medicaid program.
The Department of Justice announced that Spectranetics Corporation, a medical device manufacturer, has agreed to pay the United States $4.9 million in civil damages plus a $100,000.00 forfeiture to resolve various claims against the company. Spectranetics sells certain types of medical lasers and peripheral devices for those lasers. The claims against Spectranetics arose from allegations that the company engaged in several inappropriate acts from 2003 to 2008,
Wheaton Community Hospital, the City of Wheaton (MN), and Dr. Stanley Gallagher have agreed to pay the United States $846,461.00 to settle allegations that their hospital admission practices violated the False Claims Act. In particular, the suit against Wheaton Community Hospital, the City, and Dr. Gallagher alleged that they admitted some patients and kept others admitted to acute care when doing so was not medically necessary.
Genesys Health System, a Michigan-based health care service provider, has agreed to pay the United States $669,413.00 to settle allegations that it submitted false claims to Medicare. Specifically, a whistleblower’s qui tam suit alleged that from 2001 through 2007, Genesys repeatedly billed Medicare for higher levels of service than were actually provided to the company’s cardiology patients.
If you are aware of any person, corporation or entity that you think may be violating the Federal False Claims Act or a State False Claims Act, contact us today.