DOJ Announces Agreement With Rite Aid to Settle Allegations of Violating the FCA and CSA in Relation to Opioid Dispensing - On July 10, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Rite Aid Corporation and 10 of its...more
The Department of Justice has been clamping down on false certifications in the System for Award Management (“SAM”), in government contracts, and on invoice submissions. New laws are being created, new frameworks are being...more
In May, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices announced several significant False Claims Act (FCA) settlements resolving qui tam whistleblower lawsuits. Under the FCA’s qui tam provisions, a...more
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan announced on May 8 that Michigan Ear Care PLLC and James Aronovitz, D.O. agreed to pay over $2 million to resolve allegations that they submitted false claims to...more
The owner of Bergen Alliance Counseling Services in Paramus, New Jersey pleaded guilty to a run-of-the-mill healthcare fraud scheme in District Court in Newark on March 19. Maria Cosentino of Garfield, a licensed clinical...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
The U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced its False Claims Act (“FCA”) enforcement statistics for FY 2023 and identified key priorities for FCA enforcement in 2024 and beyond. The DOJ continues to pursue FCA...more
Whistleblower Watch is a comprehensive source for all False Claims Act (FCA) news and information. Every quarter, Cozen O’Connor will provide in-house counsel and compliance professionals with a summary of the most notable...more
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute Hospital Inc. in Tampa, Florida, has agreed to pay $19.564 million to settle false claims allegations over claims submitted to federal health care programs for items and...more
Former Healthcare Executives Convicted for Health Insurance Policy Fraud Scheme - Steven Dorfman, the former chief executive officer and owner of the Florida-based healthcare company Simple Health, and John Sand, a former...more
A Long Island man who impersonated the general counsel of the NFL and an NBA player as part of his scheme for multiple frauds will now serve jail time. Sentenced in federal court in Central Islip, Matthew James used...more
The U.S. Department of Justice recently announced that Silver Lake Hospital, a long-term care hospital in Newark, New Jersey, and some of its investors agreed to pay $30.6 million to settle claims that they violated the False...more
As previously reported in this post, criminal trials premised on upcoding evaluation and management (E/M) service codes are extremely rare. The Justice Department took that rare step in Maryland in connection with a practice...more
Health Care Network Settles False Claims Act Allegations for $345 Million - Community Health Network Inc. (CHN) has agreed to pay $345,000,000 to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act (FCA) for knowingly...more
On December 14, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and other agencies announced the indictment of Niranjan Mittal, a Brooklyn cardiologist, on multiple fraud charges. Mittal allegedly fabricated...more
The Department of Justice ("DOJ") recently announced a $1.75 million false claims settlement with a contractor that "improperly obtained government contracts that were set-aside for small businesses." The DOJ settlement...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
Evaluation and management (E/M) services have been called “the core” of healthcare billing. E/M is a catch-all claim, allowing medical professionals to bill for diagnosing or treating nearly any illness or injury. E/M is also...more
On June 1, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously settled a long-standing dispute over a subjective versus objective standard for scienter under the False Claims Act (FCA), holding that a defendant’s own subjective belief...more
Report on Medicare Compliance Volume 32, no 29 (August 2023) In a new Medicare transmittal (12,202), CMS introduced a new place of service (POS) code (27) for “Outreach Site/Street.” POS 27 is defined as “a non-permanent...more
On Friday, July 21, 2023, DOJ announced it has reached a $377,453,150 settlement with Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (Booz Allen), the parent company of Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc., the large government and military...more
There have been several noteworthy False Claims Act (FCA) settlements in the second quarter of 2023. Four of these settlements have come in over $20 million. This post summarizes key settlements of interest....more
Report on Medicare Compliance Volume 32, no 25 (July 2023) Hospices in four states will face heightened oversight. “CMS is placing newly enrolling hospices located in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Texas in a provisional...more