A settlement has been reached in a whistleblower class action lawsuit brought against GE Healthcare Inc regarding a company it acquired in 2004, Amersham Health Inc. Amersham is accused of causing Medicare to make overpayments by providing false or misleading information.
The whistleblower will receive $5.1 million from the government’s recovery.
The whistleblower lawsuit, filed in 2006, alleged that Amersham Health provided false or misleading information to Medicare regarding the number of doses available from vials, causing Medicare to pay for Myoview at artificially inflated rates. Myoview is distributed in multi-dose vials of powder. In a process known as reconstitution, nuclear pharmacies mix the powder with a radioactive agent to prepare individual doses that are injected into patients as part of the cardiac imaging procedures. Certain Medicare payment rates for Myoview were based, in part, on the number of doses available from vials of Myoview.
