The Internal Revenue Service’s tax whistle-blower program has been scrutinized by lawyers and politicians. Now, the IRS will evaluate the program and improve its working practices and backlog. According to Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement Steven T. Miller, the guidelines and procedures for managing whistle-blower complaints will be thoroughly examined by the IRS and by various internal and external stakeholders within a 90-day deadline.
The United States Government will collect $5.4 million from the notional ambulance company, Rural/Metro Corp, to settle False Claims Act allegations. The ambulance company was accused of Medicare fraud, which was brought to light by Carl Crawley under seal in U.S. District Court. Daily, Mr. Crawley had witnessed various necessary Medicare documents being forged to bill Medicare and Medicaid for services that did not occur or that were unnecessary.
The United States Government collected $5 million from Christus Spohn Health System Corporation to resolve allegations of improperly admitting patients, which were filed under the False Claims Act.
Located in Texas, six hospitals of the Christus Spohn Health System Corporation falsely claimed outpatients as inpatients to be able to send false billings to Medicare.
The U.S. Government continues to collect federal funds that were not appropriately paid to private companies. Three large pharmaceutical companies still owe the U.S. Government an amount totaling $4.7 billion as a result to False Claims Act allegations.
In 2011, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced some of the largest sums owed to the U.S.
There was a great article in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Thursday, June 14, 2012. David Sell, who covers the pharmaceutical industry for The Inquirer’s Business Department, wrote about the False Claims Act and Acting Assistant Attorney General Stuart F. Delery’s speech at the American Bar Association’s Ninth National Institute on the Civil False Claims Act and Qui Tam Enforcement.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), since its creation in 1934, has always had a program in place to report fraud, however this program has not had any incentive for people to report companies to the SEC until now.
The US Justice Department announced an agreement has been reached with Orthofix, Inc. to resolve civil and criminal charges brought as a result of a whistleblower action initiated by Jeffrey Bierman, a Midwest healthcare consultant.
Orthofix manufactures and distributes bone growth stimulators under various trade names.
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.
