Senators Charles Grassey (Republican – Iowa) and Patrick Leahy (Democrat – Vermont) have introduced a bill to fellow members of the Senate Judiciary Committee which, if passed, would redirect a fraction of the money recovered through fraud cases back into the Justice Department to help with their anti-fraud enforcement activities.
The United State Department of Justice has announced that Shell Oil Company, Shell Offshore Inc., Shell Frontier Oil & Gas Inc., and Shell Western Exploration and Production have come to an agreement regarding the False Claims Act charges filed against them. The Shell Defendants will pay the United States $2.2 million plus interest to resolve claims that the Shell companies violated the False Claims Act by deliberately underpaying royalties owed on natural gas produced from Federal leases.
Dyncorp International LLC and its subcontractor, The Sandi Group, were charged with allegations of submitting false claims for payment under Dyncorp’s contract with the Department of State to provide civilian police training in Iraq. The qui tam lawsuit was filed by two former TSG employees, which alleged that Dyncorp was submitting inflated claims for the construction of container camps at various locations in Iraq and that TSG was seeking reimbursement for danger pay that it falsely claimed to have paid its U.S.
Masoncare Health Center, an inpatient and outpatient healthcare facility, was charged with violating the False Claims Act and will pay the government almost $450,000 to resolve the allegations. Masoncare was improperly billing Medicare and Medicaid for injections of leuprolide acetate, or Lupron. The medication is used to treat prostate cancer in men and endometriosis and fibroids in women.
Peter Budetti, director of Program Integrity at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has focused his attention on fraud prevention, detection, and prosecution. On average, between $70 billion and $234 billion is lost annually due to healthcare fraud. Obama’s administration has also committed resources to minimizing fraud.
Sutter Hospital, a large hospital chain in Northern California, has had a qui tam lawsuit filed against them for false billing of anesthesia services. It is believed that the fraudulent amount is in the hundreds of million of dollars. Some of the billing codes for the services or supplies that Sutter Hospitals used were previously paid.
The Justice Department has intervened in a qui tam lawsuit originally filed in September of 2009 against ambulance company Rural/Metro Corp., alleging the company fraudulently billed Medicare and Medicaid for services provided to dialysis patients which were either not necessary or not rendered.
Senator Chuck Grassley, a champion of qui tam whistleblower protection is co-sponsoring legislation to update the 1989 Whistleblower Protection Act originally co-authored by Senator Grassley. The law currently provides protection from retaliation to federal employees who expose possible waste, fraud and abuse in federal agencies.
Telecommunications giant Verizon Communications, Inc. paid the United States $93,525,410.96 amid allegations that subsidiary MCI Communications Services, Inc. fraudulently overcharged the General Services Administration (GSA) for voice and data telecommunications services contracts. The government alleges that MCI billed the GSA for various federal, state and local taxes and surcharges, violating the terms of their contract and regulations in connection with FTS2001 and FTS 2001 Bridge contracts.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has voiced his support for a state False Claims Act (FCA) in Ohio. The FCA legislation was introduced by Republican Senators Jim Hughes of Columbus and Scott Oelslager of North Canton. Like most state False Claims Act and the federal FCA, the Ohio FCA would allow whistleblowers to provide information about alleged fraud in state spending and potentially share in any amount recovered should the case be successfully prosecuted.
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.