Friday, April 29, 2005

Science Applications International to Pay $2.5 Million to Settle False Claims Case

Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) has agreed to pay the United States $2.5 million to settle allegations that it made false claims and engaged in defective pricing on delivery orders with the Air Force for environmental clean-up at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. SAIC, a San Diego-based research and engineering company, provides information technology to commercial and government customers. See the full story from i-Newswire here.

Whistleblower, Nevada Sue Merck for Overcharging

Millions of dollars could be at stake in a lawsuit in Nevada that alleges the state’s Medicaid program was overcharged for two of Merck and Co.’s biggest selling drugs.  According to an AP account that appears in today’s nj.com, Nevada’s attorney general and a former Merck district sales manager allege that Merck failed to give Medicaid the same steep discounts for Vioxx and Zocor that it gave hundreds of hospitals nationwide. For the full story, click here.

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

ACLU Asserts Government Cannot Use Secrecy Claim to Avoid Whilstelblower's Lawsuit

An FBI language specialist fired after reporting serious security breaches should be able to go ahead with her case against the government, the ACLU argued before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on April 21. The ACLU challenged the government’s “radical theory” that every aspect of Sibel Edmonds’ case involved state secrets and therefore could not go forward. Edmonds, a former Middle Eastern language specialist hired by the FBI shortly after 9/11, was fired in 2002 after repeatedly reporting serious security breaches and misconduct. Edmonds challenged her retaliatory dismissal by filing a lawsuit in federal court, but her case was dismissed last July after Attorney General John Ashcroft invoked the so-called “state secrets privilege,” and retroactively classified briefings to Congress related to her case. Click here for more.

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Illinois Brings Insurance Fraud Claim for "Worthless Testing" Costing $234 Million

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has intervened in a sealed lawsuit and filed an insurance fraud complaint against a health care company and its owners who allegedly devised a scheme to conduct worthless and unnecessary electrodiagnostic testing while billing private insurers to the tune of more than $234 million for the services. The complaint, filed Monday in Cook County Circuit Court, names as defendants Veridian Health, LLC, Veridian’s CEO and founder Mitchell Rubin, Veridian’s Chief Compliance Officer Lawrence Rubin and neurologist Edward J. Herba, as well as a complex web of affiliated and related companies. Attorney General Madigan intervened in the suit, which was filed by private attorney Tracy Netzel on behalf of a whistleblower under the state’s Insurance Claims Fraud Prevention Act.

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Friday, April 22, 2005

Drug Companies Feeling Heat from Boston Whistle-Blowers

A story in today’s Boston Globe says that federal prosecutors are reporting a sharp rise in the rate of private lawsuits filed in Boston by people urging the govenment to bring fraud charges against their employers, especially drug companies.  The boom in these cases—up as much as 30 percent since 2002—is attributed to federal rules allowing huge payouts to plaintiffs whose suits result in cash settlements or judgments. Read the entire account here.

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