First Circuit Joins Sixth and Eighth Circuits in Adopting Heightened, But-For Causation Standard for AKS-Based FCA Claims - On February 18, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit became the latest court to agree...more
Healthcare fraud enforcement continues to be a top priority for federal authorities, with Stark Law violations remaining under particular scrutiny. The complex nature of physician self-referral regulations, combined with...more
Historically, the U.S. Department of Justice has directed its efforts on combatting healthcare fraud by focusing on persons and companies who defraud or attempt to defraud federally funded healthcare programs, such as...more
UCHealth Settles FCA Violations for $23 Million - On November 12, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that University of Colorado Health (UCHealth) agreed to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims...more
San Diego Physician and Medical Practice Pay $3.8 Million to Resolve FCA Allegations- San Diego-based physician Dr. Janette J. Gray and her former medical practice, The Center for Health & Wellbeing, agreed to pay $3.8...more
As we detailed in a previous blog, on October 3, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) published a strategic plan to “safeguard[] the integrity of HHS grants and contracts.” The...more
Welcome to the Summer 2024 issue of “FCA Enforcement & Compliance Digest,” our quarterly newsletter in which we compile essential updates on False Claims Act (FCA) enforcement trends, litigation, agency guidance, and...more
Chicago Laboratory Owner Charged with Defrauding Medicare in $60 Million COVID-19 Test Kit Scheme - The Chicago-based owner of two laboratories, Zoom Labs Inc. and Western Labs Co., has been charged with health care fraud...more
Telemedicine companies are supposed to facilitate medically necessary services to beneficiaries over the telephone via licensed medical professionals. In reality, however, many of these “telemedicine companies” are...more
Hospital Executive and Three Physicians to Pay More Than $880,000 to Resolve Kickback Allegations - On Monday, December 4, 2023, a Lexington, Texas, hospital executive and three health care providers agreed to pay more...more
Designed for busy in-house counsel and compliance professionals, this newsletter seeks to bring you up to speed on key federal and state False Claims Act (FCA) developments, with links to primary resources. Each quarter, we...more
On March 29, 2023, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a press release announcing three related civil settlements totaling over $69 million with Covenant Healthcare System and two physicians—Dr. Mark Adams, a neurosurgeon,...more
On December 1, 2022, the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) Health Care Subgroup published a report about the use of telehealth in selected health care programs across six federal agencies during the first year...more
Claims adjusters are frequently warned to identify and resolve Medicare and Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) liens before finalizing settlements in personal injury claims. But there is another federal law...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on October 18 that Oklahoma-based Carter Healthcare LLC and its affiliates, plus two executives, agreed to pay a total of over $30 million to resolve two separate qui tam cases....more
The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) recently announced two settlement agreements, both involving durable medical equipment (“DME”) companies, following allegations that the companies had violated the Anti-Kickback...more
This issue of McDermott’s Healthcare Regulatory Check-Up highlights significant regulatory activity between August 21 and September 20, 2022, including a guilty plea from a telemedicine physician who wrote prescriptions for...more
The Department of Justice announced in a February 1, 2022 press release (Press Release) that it obtained more than $5.6 billion in settlements and judgments from civil cases involving fraud and false claims in the fiscal year...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Flower Mound Hospital Partners LLC, a partially physician-owned hospital in Flower Mound, Texas, agreed to pay $18.2 million to settle its alleged violations of the False...more
DOJ Files Complaint in AWP False Claims Act Suit Against Pharmaceutical Ingredient Seller - On November 8, 2021, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it intervened in a qui tam suit and filed a False Claims Act...more
CEO of Defunct Medical Testing Lab to Pay $1.1 Million to Settle FCA and AKS Case - Jae Lee, the former CEO of defunct Northwest Physicians Laboratory (NWPL), agreed to pay $1.1 million to resolve allegations that he...more
The False Claims Act (“FCA”) is a punitive civil statute that acts as the federal government’s primary tool for combatting fraud in government health care programs, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Tricare. In fiscal year 2020...more
Pharmaceutical Company Agrees to Pay $12.6 Million to Settle FCA Allegations Involving Kickbacks - On Tuesday, the Department of Justice announced a $12.6 million settlement with Incyte Corporation, a Delaware...more
For the past two years, telemedicine companies, durable medical equipment suppliers, pharmacies, and individuals and entities that market to such entities have been at the center of DOJ gunsights. In 2019, the Department...more
Urgent Care Provider and Management Company to pay $22.5 Million to End FCA Claims - South Carolina urgent care providers agreed to pay $22.5 million to resolve False Claims Act claims filed by two former employees. The...more