Healthcare Fraud

A settlement reached to resolve False Claims Act Allegations against Omnicare Inc.

The allegations arose by a lawsuit claiming Omnicare Inc solicited and received kickbacks from pharmaceutical manufacturer Abbott Laboratories in exchange for promoting the prescription drug, Depakote, for nursing home patients.

On October 17, 2016, the Department of Justice announced, Abbott allegedly made payments to Omnicare described as “grants” and “educational funding,” even though their true purpose was to induce Omnicare to recommend Depakote.  For example, Omnicare allegedly solicited substantial contributions from Abbott and other pharmaceutical manufacturers to its “Re*View” program.  Although Omnicare claimed that Re*View was a “health management” and “educational” program, the complaint alleges that it was simply a means by which Omnicare solicited kickbacks from pharmaceutical manufacturers in exchange for increasing the utilization of their drugs on elderly nursing home residents.  In internal documents, Omnicare allegedly referred to Re*View as its “one extra script per patient” program.  The complaint also alleges that Omnicare entered into agreements with Abbott by which Omnicare was entitled to increasing levels of rebates from Abbott based on the number of nursing home residents serviced and the amount of Depakote prescribed per resident.  Lastly, the complaint alleges that Abbott funded Omnicare management meetings on Amelia Island, Florida, offered tickets to sporting events to Omnicare management and made other payments to local Omnicare pharmacies.

The United States, several states and Abbott entered into a $1.5 billion global civil and criminal resolution that, among other things, resolved Abbott’s liability under the False Claims Act for alleged kickbacks to nursing home pharmacies, including Omnicare and PharMerica Corp back in May 2012. PharMerica agreed to pay $9.25 million to the United States and several states to resolve civil liability under the False Claims Act for the alleged kickbacks from Abbott back in October 2015.  This settlement will resolve Omnicare’s role in that alleged kickback scheme.

These allegations were brought forward by two former Abbott employees, Richard Spetter and Meredith McCoyd.  As part of the Settlement, McCoyd will receive $3 million from the federal share of the settlement amount.

Two former radiologists file whistleblower lawsuit against Bozeman Health Deaconess Hospital.

The allegations arose by a lawsuit claiming Bozeman Health Deaconess Hospital of illegally conspiring to maintain its monopoly on radiology services, leading to fraudulent bills being submitted to Medicare and Medicaid.

Mr. Rembert and Mr. Paradise allege the radiology group that had contracted with the Bozeman hospital was considering opening an outpatient imaging center, which would have competed with the hospital for patients and possibly offered services at a lower cost. Allegedly, the hospital formed a joint venture with the radiology group and agreed to refer patients to the joint venture in exchange for millions of dollars in kickbacks.

The hospital's partnership with Intercity Radiology included a clause that prevented its employees from participating in any other outpatient imaging center.

The scheme resulted in millions of dollars in fraudulent claims.

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported that the Hospital attorney Ian McIntosh denied the allegations and said the hospital will defend itself against the lawsuit.

A settlement reached to resolve False Claims Act Allegations against Yavapai Regional Medical Center.

The allegations arose by a lawsuit claiming Yavapai Regional Medical Center inflated Medicare payments by incorrectly reporting the amount of hour's hospital employees worked.

On October 4, 2016, the U.S. attorney for Arizona stated that the hospital misreported the average hourly wages it paid employees from 2006 through 2009. Those higher hourly wages prompted Medicare to pay the hospital artificially high reimbursement rates based on an index that took into account many factors including hospital wages.

"Falsifying records and extracting unwarranted funds from Medicare will be detected and stopped," said Christian J. Schrank, Special Agent in Charge for the Los Angeles Region of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General. "Medicare funds are intended to care for patients, not line the pockets of providers who submit false claims."

As a result of Yavapai's false claims, federal health care programs paid substantially more than was warranted.

"As soon as we knew of this allegation on July 20, 2016, we immediately took action and, working collaboratively with the federal government, we were able to quickly reach an agreement in principle to resolve the issue," said Robbie Nicol, a hospital spokeswoman.

The whistleblowers' share of the settlement will be approximately $1.17 million. 

A settlement reached to resolve False Claims Act Allegations against Orthopedic Associates of Northern California; San Bernardino Medical Orthopaedic Group, DBA Arrowhead Orthopaedics and Reno Orthopaedic Clinic.

The allegations arose by a lawsuit claiming the three orthopedic clinics knowingly billed federal and state health care programs for re-imported osteoarthritis medications, known as viscosupplements.

Allegedly, the clinics bought discounted viscosupplements that were re-imported from foreign countries. The clinics then billed state and federal healthcare programs for reimbursements, even though the re-imported viscosupplements did not qualify as reimbursable. According, to the federal government the products were re-imported, therefore they could have been altered or stored inappropriately.

Orthopedic Associates of Northern California, located in Chico, will pay $815,794; San Bernardino Medical Orthopaedic Group Inc., DBA Arrowhead Orthopaedics, headquartered in Redlands, California, will pay $971,903; and Reno Orthopaedic Clinic, headquartered in Reno, Nevada, will pay $602,335.

The whistleblowers' share of the settlement will be approximately $430,000. 

A settlement reached to resolve False Claims Act Allegations against U.S. Healthcare Supply LLC and Oxford Diabetic Supply Inc and the two owners and presidents of those companies.

The allegations arose by a lawsuit claiming U.S. Healthcare Supply LLC and Oxford Diabetic Supply Inc and the two owners and presidents of those companies violated the federal False Claims Act by using a fictitious entity to make unsolicited telephone calls to Medicare beneficiaries in order to sell them durable medical equipment.

According to Department of Justice,  U.S. Healthcare Supply LLC and Oxford Diabetic Supply Inc set up and controlled an entity called Diabetic Experts Inc, which they used to make unsolicited telephone calls to Medicare beneficiaries in order to sell them durable medical equipment.  The companies submitted claims to Medicare for the equipment that they sold based on these unsolicited calls. 

“Cold-calling people to sell them expensive medical equipment is prohibited for a reason: unsuspecting patients shouldn’t be coerced into making medical decisions about devices and equipment – which they may not even need – on the basis of a sales pitch,” said U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman for the District of New Jersey.

U.S. Healthcare Supply LLC has agreed to pay more than $5 million, and Jon P. Letko, its owner and president, has agreed to pay more than $1 million. The owner and president of Oxford Diabetic Supply Inc, Edward J. Letko, has agreed to pay $6 million plus interest.

A settlement reached to resolve False Claims Act Allegations against North American Health Care Inc, its chairman of the board, John Sorenson, and its senior vice president of Reimbursement Analysis, Margaret Gelvezon.

The allegations arose from a lawsuit claiming North American Health Care Inc; Mr. Sorensen and Ms. Gelvezon violated the False Claims Act by causing the submission of false claims to government health care programs for medically unnecessary rehabilitation therapy services provided to residents at North American Health Care’s skilled nursing facilities.

North American Health Care has agreed to pay $28.5 million, Mr. Sorensen has agreed to pay $1 million and Ms. Gelvezon has agreed to pay $500,000.

According to the Justice Department, North American Health Care caused false claims to be submitted to Medicare and TRICARE, and Ms. Gelvezon, in her capacity as an officer of North American Health Care, contributed to this conduct by creating the improper billing scheme and Mr. Sorensen, in his capacity as chairman of the board of North American Health Care, reinforced this scheme at the North American Health Care facilities. 

Allegedly, this conduct occurred during the period from January 21, 2005, to October 31, 2009, for all of the North American Health Care skilled nursing facilities and continued during the period of November 1, 2009, to December 3, 2011, for three of the skilled nursing facilities in the Northern District of California area.

“Today’s settlement should send a message to others who may be engaging in these schemes that we will pursue justice for our beneficiaries and the programs.” stated Department of Health and Human Services-Office of the Inspector General Special Agent in Charge Steven Ryan.

North American Health Care has also entered into a five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement with the department of Health and Human Services-Office of the Inspector General as part of the settlement agreement.

On August 30, 2016, a former Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc chemist who won a $1.66 million last year alleging a biotechnology company of retaliating against him for whistleblower claims was awarded approximately another $3.3 million.

Mr. Perez claimed he was fired in 2008 after alleging that the company defrauded shareholders by falsely claiming a newly tested drug was effective. The full amount of the verdict awarded to Mr. Perez was for compensatory damages. Mr. Perez, had asked U.S. District Judge in Manhattan to order Progenics to reinstate him.

Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc is a biopharmaceutical company concentrating on research and development for biotechnology product candidates in oncology, virology, supportive care and gastroenterology. 

A settlement reached to resolve False Claims Act Allegations against Johnson & Johnson Subsidiary Acclarent Inc.

The whistleblowers' share of the settlement will be approximately $3.5 million.

The allegations arose by a lawsuit claiming Acclarent Inc, caused health care providers to submit false claims to Medicare and other federal health care programs by marketing and distributing its sinus spacer product for use as a drug delivery device without U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of that use.

On July 22, 2016, the Justice Department announced, that Acclarent sold a variety of medical devices used in sinus surgeries, including a device known as the Relieva Stratus MicroFlow Spacer (Stratus).  In 2006, Acclarent received FDA clearance to market the Stratus as a spacer to be used only with saline to maintain sinus openings following surgery.  Allegedly, Acclarent intended for the Stratus to be used instead as a drug-delivery device for prescription corticosteroids, including Kenalog-40, and that the device was specifically designed and engineered for this use.    

Also, Acclarent allegedly marketed the Stratus as a drug delivery device even after the FDA rejected the company’s 2007 request to expand the approved uses for the Stratus.

Acclarent added a warning to its label regarding use of active drug substances in the Stratus in 2010, but continued to market the Stratus for drug delivery.  By May 2013, Acclarent discontinued all sales of the Stratus and the company agreed to withdraw all FDA marketing clearances for the device.

On July 20th 2016, Acclarent’s former CEO and former Vice President of Sales were convicted of 10 misdemeanor counts of introducing adulterated and misbranded medical devices into interstate commerce.

A settlement reached to resolve False Claims Act Allegations against Lexington Medical Center.

The allegations arose by a lawsuit claiming Lexington Medical Center violated the Physician Self-Referral Law (the Stark Law) and the False Claims Act by maintaining improper financial arrangements with 28 physicians.

On July 28, 2016, the Department of Justice announced, that Lexington Medical Center entered into asset purchase agreements for the acquisition of physician practices or employment agreements with 28 physicians that violated the Stark Law because they took into account the volume or value of physician referrals, were not commercially reasonable or provided compensation in excess of fair market value.

As part of the settlement, Lexington Medical Center will enter into a Corporate Integrity Agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services-Office of the Inspector General that requires Lexington Medical Center to implement measures designed to avoid or promptly detect future conduct similar to that which gave rise to this settlement.

The whistleblowers' share of the settlement will be approximately $4.5 million. 

A settlement has been reached to resolve False Claims Act Allegations against MD2U Holding Company.

The allegations arose by a lawsuit claiming MD2U Holding Company intentionally submitted false medical claims to Medicare and other government health care programs, altered records to support false claims and provided services that were medically unnecessary.

According to the government’s complaint, between July 1, 2007, and Nov. 30, 2014, MD2U submitted false billings for patients who were neither homebound nor home-limited; improperly billed the government for medically unnecessary visits; billed government health care programs at the highest payment codes; and cloned medical records in order to justify patient visits.

“This provider billed for medically unnecessary home visits and often grossly exaggerated the level of service provided,” said Special Agent in Charge Derrick L. Jackson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) in Atlanta.

MD2U Holding Company and its President and CEO J. Michael Benfield, Chief Information Officer Greg Latta and Chief Operations Officer Karen Latta can fulfill their obligations to pay the consent judgment by paying $3.3 million and a percentage of MD2U’s net income throughout the next five years. Additionally, MD2U Holding Company and its owners have agreed to enter into a five-year corporate integrity agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General.