Healthcare fraud is an ever-growing constant in our economy. It is a battle that presents new and exponential challenges. The U.S. Department of Justice, the HHS-Office of Inspector general and State Attorneys’ General all...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
Former NBA player Glen “Big Baby” Davis was sentenced to 40 months in prison after being convicted for his role in a scheme to defraud the NBA healthcare plan. Davis’ sentence comes almost a year after the scheme’s...more
The government is continuing to take a close look at laboratory testing in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. On February 21, 2024, a federal grand jury in New Jersey issued a superseding indictment against a New York...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
Welcome to the November edition of Akin Intelligence. Looking back, October 2023 may be remembered as the month when the U.S. government tried to assume the mantle of global leadership on responsible artificial intelligence...more
FTX Founder’s Fraud Trial Continues in Manhattan Court - The criminal trial of Sam Bankman-Fried continued this week in Manhattan where the FTX founder faces several charges, including fraud, conspiracy, and money...more
Federal Judge Rules Government Must Demonstrate “But-For” Causation for Anti-Kickback Statute Claims - On September 27, 2023, Chief Judge Dennis Saylor of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts ruled that...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
Government Brings FCA Action Against Laboratory Companies - On July 18, 2023, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it has filed a complaint against multiple laboratory companies and their owner, Patrick...more
$31 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme Results in Two Convictions - On January 30, 2023, a federal jury found two Florida physicians guilty for their involvement in a scheme to defraud Medicare of over $31 million. The two...more
Pharmacy Owners Plead Guilty to COVID Fraud and Money Laundering Scheme - Two New York men pled guilty for their alleged involvement in a complex money laundering conspiracy to launder proceeds from a fraudulent health...more
Jury Orders Eli Lilly To Pay $61 Million - A federal jury in Illinois found that, beginning around 2004, drug manufacturer Eli Lilly deliberately underpaid rebates to Medicare programs by excluding retroactive drug prices...more
Targeted Probe and Educate (TPE) audits have recently become a common tool used by both law enforcement and private insurers in the Medicare program. While they focus on educating Medicare providers about proper billing...more
US Supreme Court Requests Solicitor General’s Views in FCA Rule 9(b) Context - On May 16, 2022, the US Supreme Court requested a brief from the US Solicitor General on the level particularly required by Federal Rule of...more
Cardiovascular stress testing to diagnose patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and other related types of conditions can be a highly-effective tool in many cases. In fact, many cardiologists routinely recommend stress...more
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) are scrutinizing health care providers’ Medicare billings for amniotic injections. These injections are only eligible for Medicare...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
On October 5, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a case questioning the materiality standard for Medicare fraud cases under the False Claims Act (FCA). The case involved allegations that Lawrence Memorial...more
On September 23, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, Inc. agreed to pay $97 million to resolve claims that it illegally used a foundation as a conduit to pay the copays of...more
DME Provider to Plead Guilty to $109 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme - A Florida-based individual was charged with one count of health care fraud and one count of payment of kickbacks in connection with a federal health care...more
Unsurprisingly, COVID-19 has greatly liberalized federal and state telehealth requirements previously in place. What has not changed is the fact that telehealth services are governed by a number of different laws and...more
Report on Medicare Compliance 29, no. 4 (February 3, 2020) - ? Central Coast Inpatient Consultants Inc. in California has agreed to pay $750,000 in a civil monetary penalty settlement with the HHS Office of Inspector...more
Report on Medicare Compliance 29, no. 2 (January 20, 2020) - - The HHS Office of Inspector General has updated its Work Plan, which includes an item on early discharges from inpatient rehabilitation facilities to home...more