With due respect to our friends at the Internal Revenue Service, most people would rather not hear from them this year. (Well, unless they have a hankering to discuss “Party of Five” with an IRS agent. But we digress.)
But we’re guessing the whistleblower who recently received $20 million for a tip he gave the IRS in 2006 feels differently.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released a proposed rule this week that could allow Medicare Part D plans to curtail coverage for antidepressants.
The rule would remove antidepressants and immunosuppressants from so-called “protected” status in 2015 and would potentially ax antipsychotics from the list a year later.
New York City will pay the federal government more than $1 million to settle a whistleblower claim alleging fraud by the city’s schools.
The $1.375-million settlement, announced Monday, resolves allegations that the New York Education Department submitted false claims for Medicaid services not provided to special-education students.
For the full press release, please see:
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2014/January/14-civ-037.
Allergan Inc. paid kickbacks to induce prescriptions of the pharmaceutical company’s eye care drugs, according to allegations raised in a lawsuit unsealed on December 17, 2013 in federal court in Philadelphia.
On December 30, 2013, the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, in response to a Department of Justice motion, unsealed a whistleblower lawsuit filed by North Carolina Emergency Room Physicians against Health Management Associates and Emergency Medical Services Corporation (“EmCare”).
The Department of Justice announced that fiscal year 2013 was a record year for recovery of taxpayer dollars under the False Claims Act (“FCA”) with $3.8 billion obtained in settlements and judgments from FCA defendants. This recovery, the second largest in history, brings the total amount recovered under the Act since January 2009 to $17 billion.
Northrop Grumman, one of the nation’s largest defense contractors, agreed to pay $11.4 million to resolve allegations that it violated the Federal Acquisition Regulations (“FAR”) and the FCA.
The government’s recent massive settlement with Johnson & Johnson is paying dividends for the residents of Washington, D.C.
The District of Columbia’s Medicaid program will receive more than $3 million out of the $1.2 billion settlement, which resolved four qui tam cases filed in federal court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
In early June, two Pennsylvania State legislators introduced House Bill 1493, a state version of the federal False Claims Act. The bill would reportedly provide the state with a crucial tool in fighting healthcare waste, fraud, and abuse.
“Pennsylvanians lose as much as $200 million a year through Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse,” said Democratic State Rep.
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.