Category: State False Claims Acts
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.
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.
An orthopaedic sports medicine clinic in Los Angeles, California, has agreed to pay $3 million to the United States government to settle allegations that it received illegal kickbacks from HealthSouth Corporation. The Kerlan Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic, a prominent practice whose patients have included numerous pro athletes, allegedly received kickbacks from HealthSouth Corporation in the form of loan forgiveness,
A state whistleblower claim brought under California’s False Claims Act settled for $39 million last month, bringing to almost $60 million the total recovery that California water districts and municipalities, including the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles, have recovered because of excessive lead levels in water valves and fittings manufactured by James Jones Company LLC.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced the settlement of multiple false claims act cases against Omnicare, Inc. of Covington, Kentucky, for $98 million for soliciting and receiving multiple kickbacks. The first scheme involved Johnson and Johnson and kickbacks for recommending that physicians prescribe Risperdal, a J&J antipsychotic drug,
Fourteen states and the District of Columbia have filed a false claims act suit against Amgen, accusing the biotech company of using kickbacks to sell its anemia drug Aranesp (darbepoetin alfa).
In court papers filed Oct. 30 in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the states and D.C.
The United States and the Commonwealth of Virginia have intervened in a False Claims Act suit in the Western District of Virginia against the Medicaid providers Universal Health Services Inc., Keystone Marion LLC and Keystone Education and Youth Services LLC, the Justice Department announced today. They did business as the Keystone Marion Youth Center,
On October 8, 2009, the Pennsylvania Senate introduced a bill that would enact a Pennsylvania False Claims Act. Senate Bill 1113 would enable the Commonwealth to collect treble damages and a civil penalty of $5,000 to $10,000 per claim from anyone who submits, or causes another to submit, a false or fraudulent claim for payment to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
As of October 1, 2009, 25 States have enacted their own State False Claims Acts. Most of the State False Claims Acts are modeled after the federal False Claims Act, and provide that qui tam whistleblowers can bring claims on behalf of the state. There are, however, important differences between these State False Claims Acts,
