Two subsidiaries of France-based drug manufacturer Sanofi, Sanofi-Aventis, Inc. and Sanofi-Aventis, LLC, agreed to pay $109 million to the U.S. to resolve allegations that it violated the federal False Claims Act by providing units of its knee injection, Hyalgan, to physicians for free in order to induce them to buy and prescribe Hyalgan in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute.
Pfizer agreed to pay $55 million to the U.S. government for marketing its drug Protonix, approved to treat erosive esophagitis, for unapproved use. According to the Justice Department, Pfizer promoted Protonix for all forms of gastroesophageal reflux disease even though it is only approved for short-term treatment of erosive esophagitis.
In a recent interview with the American Lawyer, Sean McKessey, the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower chief, warned companies and lawyers to not try to impede or intimidate potential whistleblowers from making tips to the SEC. Specifically, Mr. McKessey warned that attorneys should not seek to draft policies and agreements which would prevent a company’s employee from reporting alleged fraud to the SEC.
The Department of Justice announced that it recovered a record $5 billion from companies that defrauded the government through the False Claims Act in 2012, $3.3 billion of which came from cases filed by qui tam whistleblowers. The government has recovered $13.
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health & Human Services has announced that it expects to recover approximately $6.9 billion in fiscal year 2012. Of this amount, $923.8 million is attributable to audit receivables and $6 billion to investigative receivables. OIG also reported that approximately $8.
On November 27, 2012, President Obama signed the Whistleblower Protection and Enhancement Act, a bill which supporters had been attempting to get passed for more than a decade. The statute increases the protections already in place for federal employees who witness waste, fraud or abuse within the federal government.
The United States Department of Justice has announced that Baylor University Medical Center, Baylor Health Care System and HealthTexas Provider Network (collectively referred to as “Baylor”) have agreed to pay $907,355 to revolve charges that they submitted false claims to Medicare, the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services and the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program.
Hospices provide individuals who decide not to seek a cure for their medical conditions with treatments aimed at reducing the severity of their symptoms. Medicare beneficiaries are entitled to receive hospice care if they have been diagnosed with six months or less to live.
Jason Sobek, a former admissions supervisor at Education Management Corporation (“EDMC”), the country’s second-largest operator of for-profit colleges, has filed a lawsuit charging that EDMC’s marketing materials deceived prospective students by falsely inflating job placement statistics. In an interview with ABC News, Mr.
Recent changes to the IRS Whistleblower program are intended to encourage taxpayers to expose tax fraud. The ruling in a recent case, however, revealed the intent of both the IRS and the TAX Court to adhere to existing law. In the matter of Cohen v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue 139 T.C.
