Friday, July 24, 2009

New York State and City to Pay $540 Million for False Medicaid Claims

New York State and City will pay the federal government $540 million to settle allegations they submitted false claims under the federal Medicaid program.

The false claims concerned reimbursements for school-based programs like speech therapy and transportation between 1990 and 2001. The settlement stemmed from two lawsuits filed by whistleblowers.

The settlement is a record federal recovery by the U.S. Justice Department for the Medicaid program.

Click here to read the full article “New York state, city read $540 mln Medicaid deal"

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Boston Scientific and Medtronic Involved in Lawsuit for Cheating Medicare

Two medical device giants have been accused of promoting off-label use of their products and cheating the Medicare system in a federal lawsuit stemming from a qui tam accusation.

AtriCure Inc., St. Jude Medical Inc. and subsidiary Epicor Medical Inc. and Endoscopic Technologies are accused of offering illegal kickbacks to hospitals and doctors who use their equipment to perform microwave cardiac ablation procedures.  The suit alleges they, “initiated a scheme to encourage hospitals to improperly bill Medicare for the procedures and to ‘upcode’ their bills to get even more out of the federal health program.”

The whistleblower, who requested her personal information be removed from court documents, worked for Boston Scientific as a sales rep. The scheme allegedly called for sales reps to use codes for more expensive procedures in order to receive a larger sum from Medicare.

Click here to read the full article “Boston Scientific, Medtronic, five others slapped with off-label lawsuits"

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

U.S. Joins Whistleblower Lawsuit Against Several Corporations

The United States has joined a whistleblower case alleging conspiracies to win a lucrative contract between former government employees together with several corporations and individuals.

The lawsuit alleges that the government employees knowingly conspired with executives and directors at Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) and Applied Enterprise Solutions (AES) to ensure that SAIC and its partners would be awarded the contract. The former employees allegedly shared non-public information, shared information about the contract solicitation and choose a type of contract with language that would favor SAIC.

Click here to read more details about the ongoing false claims act suit against several corporations and individuals.

Medical Center to Settle Fraud Allegations with $2.75 Million

Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center Inc. has agreed to pay $2.75 million to settle allegations stemming from a qui tam lawsuit begun by two employees. The medical center allegedly claimed patients were treated for ailments that did not exist, such as malnutrition and respiratory failure, to increase the rates at which they were reimbursed by the Maryland Health Service Cost Review.

The announcement was made by the Maryland U.S. Attorney. .For their involvement, the two employees who filed the complaint will receive 20 percent, or $550,000, of the settlement.

Click here and here to read more about the settled false claims case.

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