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.
The Kmart discount chain, in order to settle False Claims Act complaints, has agreed to pay $2.55 million.
Kmart violated the False Claims Act by billing Medicaid, the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program, and other health programs for all drugs included in a prescription in cases when it dispensed only part of the prescribed drugs.
Greg Abbott, Texas Attorney General, announced that Fougera Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a New York-based subsidiary of Sandoz Inc., fraudulently reported inflated drug prices to the Medicaid program and will now have to pay up.
Under the settlement agreement, Fougera will pay the state and the federal government a total of $22.75 million.
Much like the United States, Britain is considering rewarding whistleblowers in order to encourage more to come forward in an effort to uncover fraud and other white-collar crimes.
The U.K. Home Office and other government agencies will examine the qui tam provisions of the U.S.
Michael A. Morse will be presenting at a National Business Institute CLE on November 21, 2013. He will present on “False Claims Act and Qui Tam Litigation.”
For more information and to register for this presentation, please see:
http://www.nbi-sems.com/Details.
In a case that could have enormous implications for the federal government and the pharmaceutical industry, the United States Supreme Court has asked the Solicitor General to provide its position. The issue involves Rule 9(b) of the False Claims Act, which requires a whistleblower to allege claims of fraud with specificity.
