Ceradyne, Inc., a subcontractor for Sikorsky Aircraft, agreed to pay the federal government $1.2 million to settle a False Claims Act suit for failing to ballistically test armor plating installed near the pilot and co-pilot in Black Hawk helicopters. Ceradyne’s settlement comes a little over a year after Sikorsky itself paid $2.9 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations stemming from the same inadequate armor plating.
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital has agreed to pay $6.35 Million to settle allegations of violations of the False Claims Act. The suits alleged that the Hamilton, New Jersey hospital fraudulently inflated its charges to Medicare patients to obtain larger “outlier payments.” Congress enacted the supplemental outlier payments to ensure that hospitals have incentives to treat patients whose care requires unusually high costs.
Minnesota’s False Claims Act, which will take effect July 1, 2010, differs from its federal and other state counterparts in several key respects that may have a chilling effect on qui tam actions in this state. Whether it’s “Minnesota nice” or an effective deterrent against fraud remains to be seen.
Christiana Care Health System (CCHS) has agreed to pay the United States and the State of Delaware $3.3 Million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit that alleged that CCHS paid kickbacks to, and entered into improper self-referral relationships, with a physicians' practice located in New Castle, Delaware.
The Houston Independent School District has agreed to relinquish millions of dollars in requests for federal funds and to pay a total of $850,000 as part of a civil settlement relating to allegations that the school district violated the False Claims Act in connection with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) E-Rate Program, the Justice Department recently announced.
The United States and the State of New York have entered into settlement agreements with three home health agencies to resolve allegations that the agencies submitted false claims to the New York Medicaid and Medicare Programs.
The New York Medicaid Program provides coverage for home health aides only if those aides have valid certificates showing that they received proper training.
St. John’s Health System, headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has agreed to pay the United States $13,229,348.88 to settle allegations that it submitted claims to Medicare and Medicaid that were tainted by the hospital’s financial relationships with referring physicians.
Federal law prohibits health care providers like St.
Chevron Corporation, Texaco, Unocal, Inc. and their affiliates (the Chevron Companies), have agreed to pay the United States $45,569.584.74 to resolve claims that they violated the False Claims Act by knowingly underpaying royalties owed on natural gas produced from federal and Indian leases.
Responsibility for overseeing the collection of royalties on federal and Indian leases lies with the Minerals Management Service (MMS) of the U.S.
The University of Phoenix has agreed to pay $67.5 million to the United States to resolve allegations that its student recruitment policies violated the False Claims Act. Two former University of Phoenix employees alleged that the University accepted federal student financial aid in violation of statutory and regulatory provisions that prohibit post-secondary schools from paying admissions counselors certain forms of incentive based compensation tied to the number of students recruited.
The Visiting Physicians Association (“VPA”), which provides home health services in Michigan, Ohio, Georgia and Wisconsin, will pay the United States and the state of Michigan $9.5 million to settle allegations that the VPA violated the False Claims Act by submitting false claims to Medicare, TRICARE and the Michigan Medicaid program.
