Thursday, September 29, 2005

Whistleblower Lawsuit Claims Security Firm Overbilled Florida County

A story in today’s Miami Herald reveals that a lawsuit was filed yesterday claiming that Wackenhut Corp. has fraudulently overbilled Miami-Dade County for ‘’phantom’’ security work that was never performed.

The suit, which was brought by a Wackenhut employee, charges the company with overcharging the county under contracts to provide security guards for the county’s Juvenile Assessment Center and the Miami-Dade Transit Department—costing the city up to $4.5 million a year, the suit claims.

The following link will take you to the detilas on this qui tam lawsuit.

Friday, September 23, 2005

Key West Whistleblowers Reap $26 Million from GlaxoSmithKline

A story in today’s Miami Herald chronicles how four partners in a small Key West pharmacy triggered a federal investigation that resulted in a $700 million settlement from one of the nation’s largest pharmaceutical companies, of which $26 million went to the whistlebowers.

For the full story, click here.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Medicare Contractor to Pay U.S. $6 Million for Overcharging Federal Government

AdminaStar Federal Inc. will pay the U.S. government $6 million to resolve allegations that the company interfered with Medicare evaluations and overcharged the federal healthcare program, the U.S. Justice Department announced today.

AdminaStar Federal, a subsidiary of Anthem Insurance Companies Inc. headquartered in Indianapolis, provides contractual services for administration of certain aspects of the Medicare program. The government alleges that company employees, during the period from 1991 through 1998, tampered with and altered Medicare files and claims information, and hung up on customer service phone calls, in an effort to improve scores on Medicare evaluations of Medicare operations in Kentucky administered by AdminaStar Federal.

The settlement resolves two qui tam, or whistleblower, suits brought against AdminaStar under the False Claims Act. Under the act, private persons, known as relators, may bring suit on behalf of the United States alleging fraud against the government and, in an appropriate case, receive a share of the proceeds.  See details of this story here.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

GlaxoSmithKline Pays $150 Million to Settle Drug Pricing Fraud Case

GlaxoSmithKline has paid over $150 million to resolve allegations that the company violated the False Claims Act through fraudulent drug pricing and marketing of two anti-emetic drugs, Zofran and Kytril, used primarily in conjunction with oncology and radiation treatment, the Justice Department announced today.

The U.S. government alleged in settlement documents that GlaxoSmithKline - one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturers - engaged in a scheme to set and maintain fraudulent and inflated prices for the two drugs knowing that federal healthcare programs established reimbursement rates based on those prices. The difference between the reimbursement rate of the federal health care programs and the actual price paid by healthcare providers for a drug is commonly known as the “spread.” The larger the spread on a drug, the larger the profit or return on investment for the provider. GlaxoSmithKline allegedly used the spread to market, promote, and sell the drugs to existing and potential customers. Because reimbursement from federal programs was based on the fraudulent, inflated prices, the U.S. contended that GlaxoSmithKline caused false and fraudulent claims to be submitted to federal healthcare programs.

For the full story, read here.

Monday, September 19, 2005

Office Depot Pays U.S. $4.75 Million to Resolve False Claims Act Allegations

Office Depot, Inc. has paid the U.S. $4.75 million to settle allegations that it submitted false claims when it sold office supply products manufactured in countries not permitted by the Trade Agreements Act to United States government agencies, the Department of Justice announced today.

The settlement resolves allegations that the Florida-based company sold products from countries, such as China and Taiwan, that do not have reciprocal trade agreements with the U.S. Office Depot was required by its contract with the General Services Administration (GSA) to prevent such items from being offered for sale to U.S. government agencies.

The case was filed in January 2003 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia under the qui tam or whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act by Safina Office Products and two of its executives, Edward Wilder and Robert Hsi Chou Lee. Safina, Wilder and Roberts will collectively receive $712,500 of the total recovery as their statutory award. Under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act, private parties can file an action on behalf of the United States and receive a portion of the proceeds of a settlement or judgment awarded against a defendant. For the complete story, click here.

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