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.
The decision by the District Court for the Southern District of New York to disqualify Fair Laboratory Practices Associates (FLPA) from its qui tam suit against Quest Diagnostics (Quest) and Unilab Corporation (Unilab) was recently affirmed by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Marc S. Raspanti will be presenting at an American Law Institute Webinar CLE on November 7, 2013. He will present on “Litigating a False Claims Act Whistleblower Case.”
For more information and to register for this presentation, please see:
http://www.ali-cle.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=courses.
On October 25, 2013, a United States District Court in the Sothern District of New York ruled that a SEC whistleblower who reported alleged SEC violations to the FBI and internally to his employer was a whistleblower under the anti-retaliation provisions of Dodd-Frank.
According to the organization, Taxpayers Against Fraud (“TAF”), the federal government receives over $16 for every $1 it spends investigating and prosecuting civil healthcare fraud. This is even after subtracting the amount paid to whistleblowers.
Under the False Claims Act (“FCA”), healthcare fraud cases have grown significantly. Just 62 healthcare qui tam cases were recorded from 1987 to 1992 but 412 were recorded for last year alone.
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.