St. Jude Medical Inc., a medical device company based out of Little Canada, Minnesota, agreed to pay $3.65 million to the federal government to settle False Claims Act allegations that it falsely inflated the price of pacemakers and defibrillators sold to the government.
Hospice Family Care Inc., a hospice company based out of Mesa, Arizona, has agreed to pay $3.7 million to the federal government to settle allegations that it submitted false claims to Medicare. The company and its former owners, Nancy Smith and Nancy Turner, agreed to settle allegations that it sought payments from Medicare for patients who were ineligible or partially ineligible for hospice care and for billing Medicare for a higher level of care than what was medically necessary for certain patients.
Calnet Inc., which provided intelligence analysis, information technology and translation services to the Department of Defense (DoD), agreed to pay $18.1 million to settle a claim that the company inflated its rates on three contracts with the DoD from 2006 to 2010.
Kyle Lagow, a former home appraiser with Countrywide Financial brought suit under the Federal False Claims Act accusing his employer of defrauding the Federal Government by inflating appraisals on government backed loans. Lagow along with four other whistleblowers, initiated suits that were combined and ultimately led to a $25 billion settlement reached between state and federal officials and five lenders including Bank of America.
William Pietragallo, II, founding partner of the law firm of Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick and Raspanti, LLP was selected as a Pittsburgh Top 50 Lawyer by Super Lawyers 2012. Marc S. Raspanti, partner in the law firm of Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick and Raspanti, LLP, was selected as a Philadelphia Top 100 Lawyer and a Top 100 Lawyer in Pennsylvania by Super Lawyers 2012.
The United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania has allowed a False Claims Act suit against Pittsburgh-based Education Management Corp. to proceed. The complaint, which was originally brought by two whistleblowers, alleged that Education Management Corporation had violated the Higher Education Act’s prohibition on paying incentives to college recruiters based on the number of students they are able to recruit to an educational institution.
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York has announced that Lenox Hill Hospital will pay $11.75 million dollars to settle a civil health care fraud lawsuit.
The federal government accused Lenox Hospital of fraudulently inflating its charges for services provided to Medicare patients in order to obtain higher supplemental reimbursements that Medicare pays to health care providers in cases where the cost of care is unusually high.
On May 3, 2012, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee announced that a number of dialysis centers in the Knoxville, Tennessee area had agreed to pay $4.36 million to resolve allegations that they had violated the federal False Claims Act, the Tennessee Medicaid False Claims Act and other federal and state laws and regulations.
On May 7, 2012, the Justice Department announced that Abbott Laboratories, Inc. has pled guilty to allegations arising out of its promotion of the prescription drug, Depakote.
Abbott Labs was charged with promoting the drug for uses which had not been approved as safe and effective by the Food and Drug Administration.
In April 2012, Diane Boerman a senior accounts clerk at the Sacramento Public Library reached a $343,000 confidential settlement in her retaliation lawsuit against the library. Boerman blew the whistle on a kickback scheme that ultimately sent three people to prison.
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.