Category: State False Claims Acts
PHILADELPHIA, PA – Michael A. Morse, a partner in the law firm of Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick and Raspanti, LLP, presented at the Thirteenth Annual Pharmaceutical Regulatory and Compliance Congress and Best Practices Forum in Washington, DC on November 6, 2012. The Compliance Congress is sponsored by the Pharmaceutical Compliance Forum,
California Govenor, Jerry Brown, recently signed into law AB 2492, amending California’s False Claims Act to “better conform it to requirements of the federal False Claims Act.”
The amended law becomes effective on January 1st, 2013. Some of the key changes include an award of up to 50% for the whistleblower from the proceeds ultimately paid out by the defendant.
HCA, one of the largest for-profit hospital chains nationwide, has agreed to pay the United States and the state of Tennessee $16.5 million to settle allegations arising from its Parkridge Medical Center facility in Chattanooga. A financial arrangement between Parkridge Medical Center and physician group Diagnostic Associates of Chattanooga triggered the allegations that Parkridge violated the False Claims Act and the Stark Statute.
New York Downtown Hospital, located in lower Manhattan near New York City’s financial district, will pay $13.4 million to settle two lawsuits pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
The lawsuits entitled United States and New York State ex rel.
On May 3, 2012, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee announced that a number of dialysis centers in the Knoxville, Tennessee area had agreed to pay $4.36 million to resolve allegations that they had violated the federal False Claims Act, the Tennessee Medicaid False Claims Act and other federal and state laws and regulations.
On Thursday, Sprint Nextel Corp., the third largest mobile service provider in the United States, was sued by the state of New York for over $300 million for allegations of tax fraud. The State of New York claimed that Sprint intentionally decided not to collect or pay taxes, worth millions of dollars,
Kentucky’s Speaker of its House of Representatives, Greg Stumbo, announced that he was introducing false claims act legislation to give whistleblowers strong tools and incentives to expose misuse of state dollars. Stumbo supported his legislation by pointing to other states, such as California and Texas, that have successfully prosecuted cases under their own false claims acts.
Influential in Securing House passage of the False Claims Act Amendments of 1986, Representative Howard Berman joins in the commemoration of its 25th anniversary. Since the False Claims Act was amended, the government has recovered over $30 billion in settlements and judgments in civil cases involving fraud against the government.
Taxpayers Against Fraud foresees more than $9 billion in False Claims Act recoveries, “…counting civil, state and criminal fines – is within the realm of possible for FY 2012,” stated Patrick Burns of TAF. The cases settled or lined up for settlement included: Merck ($950 million); GlaxoSmithKline ($3 billion); Abbott ($1.5 billion);
Merck & Co, Inc., the second largest drug manufacturer in the nation, agreed to pay $24 million to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to settle allegations that it knowingly reported inflated drug prices to the Massachusetts Medicaid program. The $24 million settlement is the largest single payment made to the Commonwealth for any one Medicaid fraud case in the state’s history,
