Thursday, August 31, 2006

Schering-Plough pleads guilty in Criminal Conspiracy, agrees to pay $435 Million

Schering-Plough Corp. paid $435 million in fines and pleaded guilty to criminal conspiracy charges to settle Justice Department accusations that it lied to the government about drug prices and improperly marketed cancer drugs for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

The case marks the third multimillion-dollar government settlement in five years for the Kenilworth, N.J., pharmaceutical company, which has annual sales of about $10 billion. Counting this settlement, Schering-Plough has paid about $1.3 billion in civil and criminal fines since 2002. “In most cases of healthcare fraud, the conduct is driven by a bottom-line mentality,” said Michael J. Sullivan, the US attorney for Massachusetts, whose office conducted the investigation. Sullivan disclosed the settlement at a press conference in Boston earlier this week. Click the following link for the Boston Globe’s account of this false claims act resolution.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Judge tosses Verdict Against Iraq War Contractor on Technicality

A federal judge threw out a $10 million jury verdict against an American company accused of overcharging on an Iraq reconstruction contract after concluding that the now-defunct Coalition Provisional Authority was not a U.S. government entity. The civil fraud suit against Custer Battles LLC, which has offices in Northern Virginia, arose out of the chaotic 14-month period during which the authority governed Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

A former employee and a subcontractor of Custer Battles used the federal whistleblowers law to chage the company with creating phony Cayman Islands companies to overcharge the authority on a contract to furnish Iraq with a new currency. The firm denied the claim.

Although a jury found the company guilty, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III ruled on review that the firm could not be sued under the federal False Claims Act because of the ambiguous structure of the authority, which issued the contract. The judge also concluded that the way in which the company had been paid distanced it from the U.S. government.

Click the following link to read the full Washington Post story on the overturned false claims verdict.

Louisiana Hospital to pay $3.8 Million in Medicaid Settlement

Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center of Lafayette, LA has agreed to repay the government $3.8 million for defrauding Medicare and Medicaid by filing false claims for unnecessary heart procedures. The settlement enables the hospital to avoid admitting fault for the work performed there by Dr. Mehmood Patel, who was the subject of the fraud charges.

Patel’s heart procedures were first publicly questioned in 2004, when Lourdes and Lafayette General Medical Center revoked his hospital privileges, and patients began filing medical malpractice lawsuits. The suits claim Patel performed hundreds of medically unnecessary angioplasties and stent replacements during a period of several years.

Click the following link to read the full account of the Medicaid fraud settlement.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Omnicare Executive indicted for Medicaid Fraud

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Omnicare Inc.’s top executive in Michigan was indicted today on 148 counts of Medicaid fraud.

Daniel Lohmeier, president of Omnicare’s Specialized Pharmacy Services in Livonia, Mich., was identified by Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox as the person responsible for a wide range of Medicaid billing practices that the state regards as fraud. Lohmeier faces up to four years in prison.

Click the following link to read the full story on the Omnicare Medicaid Fraud indictment.

Friday, August 11, 2006

Medco discloses Two New Whistleblower Suits

Just a month ago, pharmacy benefit manager Medco Health Solutions agreed to a $163 million settlement with the U.S. Justice Department that would end the government’s prosecution over alleged mail fraud. But just last week, the company admitted that it learned of two additional whistleblower actions, one filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the other filed in the District of New Jersey, while negotiating the prior settlement.  Medco said the actions were sealed, and that each action “appears to allege” billing violations.

Click the following link for the full story from EasyBourse.com.

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