On July 16, 49 attorneys general (AGs) announced that they joined a $202 million settlement with Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Gilead). Previously announced by the Department of Justice in April, the settlement resolved allegations...more
In a matter of first impression, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals interpreted the scope of the 2018 Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act (EKRA) in the context of a lab operator who allegedly paid marketers to induce...more
Seventh Circuit Considers When Legal Marketing Transforms Into Illegal Kickbacks - On December 4, the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit heard oral arguments regarding whether the January 2023 jury conviction of...more
On October 15, Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown announced that his office reached a $27 million settlement with Precision Toxicology to resolve allegations that it submitted false claims to government health...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
The following is a summary of selected federal Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (OIG) reports of fraud and abuse enforcement activity across the country. The enforcement actions reported...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
Three Men Sentenced for $54 Million TRICARE Fraud Scheme - Three men were sentenced in connection with a $54 million bribery and kickback scheme involving TRICARE, a federal program that provides health insurance benefits...more
Medical Marketer Convicted of $55 Million Fraud Scheme - Late last week, a federal jury in the Northern District of Texas convicted Quintan Cockerell for his role in a $55 million fraud conspiracy involving TRICARE, a...more
DOJ’s First Criminal Securities Fraud Prosecution Related to COVID-19 Results in Eight-Year Sentence - Mark Schena, the former president of Arrayit Corporation, a Silicon Valley-based medical technology company, was...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
This issue of McDermott’s Healthcare Regulatory Check-Up highlights significant regulatory activity for April 2023. We discuss several criminal and civil enforcement actions related to the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) and the...more
On October 18, 2022, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced two settlements with CHC Holdings, LLC, an Oklahoma limited liability company doing business as Carter Healthcare (Carter), and two former senior corporate...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
SCOTUS Denies Cert In Cases Addressing FCA Pleadings Requirements - On Monday, October 17, 2022, the US Supreme Court rejected three petitions asking the Court to resolve a circuit split regarding the Rule 9(b)...more
The following is a summary of the federal Health and Human Services agency’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) reports of fraud and abuse enforcement activity across the country. The enforcement actions reported are based...more
Prosecutions related to the submission of claims to Tricare for compounded pain creams continue. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed convictions against a Florida pharmacist, physician, and Navy veteran for their...more
Last Monday, the Eleventh Circuit ruled that the Middle District of Florida’s sentence of probation for former physician Nicole Bramwell in a $4.4 million Tricare fraud case was substantively unreasonable. The district...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
4th Circuit Affirms Dismissal of FCA Medicaid Suit Against Allergan - On January 25, 2022, a majority of the Fourth Circuit panel affirmed the dismissal of a relator's False Claims Act complaint against Allergan Sales LLC,...more
Texas Man Sentenced to More Than Nine Years in Prison for COVID-19 Fraud Scheme - After pleading guilty to two charges of wire fraud and money laundering, a Texas man was sentenced to 110 months in prison for his scheme to...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