In a newly unsealed suit under the False Claims Act, a fellow surgeon has alleged that his colleagues at Chicago’s prestigious Rush University Medical Center routinely overbooked their schedules and relied on residents to perform surgeries in violation of federal Medicare billing rules. A total of 6 surgeons, Rush University Medical Center,
Oracle Corp., the world’s second- biggest software maker, faces a lawsuit brought by a whistleblower and the U.S. Justice Department claiming it overcharged the government by tens of millions of dollars. Oracle failed to disclose discounts that it gave its most favored commercial customers, according to a complaint in federal court in Alexandria,
Advanced BioNutrition Corporation, of Columbia, Maryland, and its former chief executive officer, David Kyle, paid the federal government $934,000, stemming from violations of the False Claims Act, federal prosecutors said Thursday. Advanced BioNutrition Corporation was awarded the first phase of a National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research grant in February 2005 to develop technology to micro-encapsulate probiotic bacteria into particles.
The Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati, two of its member hospitals (The Fort Hamilton Hospital and The University Hospital), and University Internal Medicine Associates Inc. have agreed to pay the United States $2.6 million to settle claims that they violated the Anti-Kickback Statute and the False Claims Act by engaging in a kickback-for-referral scheme,
The owner and the vice president of a Detroit-area physical therapy clinic were convicted on June 22, 2010, by a federal jury for their roles in a $23 million Medicare fraud scheme, announced the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services.
Evidence at trial established that Wayne County Therapeutic Inc.
Cochlear America, a manufacturer of cochlear implants, has settled a false claims case against it, alleging that it made illegal payments to health care providers to induce the purchase of its implant systems. Cochlear implants are small, complex electronic devices that can help to provide a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard-of-hearing.
Johnson and Johnson filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit against it under the False Claims Act for allegedly paying kickbacks to Omnicare, Inc to push Johnson & Johnson drugs to nursing home patients. Omnicare earlier settled a lawsuit against it for $98 million for accepting such kickbacks, although Omnicare denied liability.
At a panel on Thursday, June 3, 2010, the Deputy Director of the Commercial Litigation Branch of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division, Michael Granston, announced that he expected Congress to enact changes to the Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act of 1986. Also known as the “mini False Claims Act,” the PFCRA enables the government to recover up to $150,000 in administrative proceedings and permit a person to be made to pay up to $5,000 per claim and double the amount falsely claimed.
On Thursday, June 3, 2010, Senior U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Perry, Jr., ruled that Tuomey Healthcare System, based in Sumter, South Carolina, must pay $44,888,651 plus interest received from Medicare under physician contracts in violation of the Stark Law. This ruling from Judge Perry follows the March 29 jury verdict where a federal jury found that the hospital violated the Stark Law,
On Friday, June 4, 2010, the Department of Justice announced that three entities, St. Jude Medical, Inc., a heart device manufacturer; Parma Community General Hospital; and Norton Healthcare will pay the United States $3,898,300 in response to allegations that St. Jude paid illegal kickbacks to two hospitals to secure heart-device business.
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.