A settlement has been reached in a whistleblower class action lawsuit brought against DaVita Healthcare Partners Inc who is accused of knowingly creating unnecessary waste in administering the drugs Zemplar and Venofer to dialysis patients, and then billing the federal government for such avoidable waste.
Filed in October of 2007, the whistleblowers’ complaint alleged that, to create unnecessary Zemplar waste, DaVita required its employees to provide Zemplar to dialysis patients pursuant to mandatory and wasteful “dosing grids.” Zemplar, a Vitamin D supplement usually administered at every dialysis session, is packaged in single-use vial sizes of 2 mcg, 5 mcg, and 10 mcg. Davita allegedly created unnecessary waste by requiring its employees to provide Zemplar to dialysis patients pursuant to mandatory “dosing grids,” which were designed to maximize the amount of Zemplar administered to patients. DaVita then allegedly billed the government not only for the amount of Zemplar administered to patients, but also for the amount “wasted.”
With regard to Venofer, an iron supplement packaged only in a single-use vial size of 100 mg during the relevant time period, DaVita allegedly enacted protocols that required nurses to administer this drug in small amounts, and at frequent intervals, to maximize wastage. For instance, in certain instances, DaVita’s protocol called for a patient to receive 25 mg of Venofer per week, which resulted in 300 mg of waste per month that was billed to the Government. In contrast, if the order had been filled by giving the patient the entirety of a single 100 mg vial, once per month, no waste would have resulted.
