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
Prescription drug fraud has long been a focus for government regulators, but it has taken on new significance in the wake of America’s opioid crisis. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Health and Human...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
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
William F. Gould In United States v. Merino, No. 19-50291, 2021 WL 754589 (9th Cir. Feb. 26, 2021), the court of appeals reversed the conviction of Marina Merino of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud in violation of 18...more
Omnicare and CVS Face Fraudulent Billing Lawsuit - On Tuesday, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced a False Claims Act lawsuit against Omnicare, Inc. and its parent company, CVS Health...more
When Riordan, Lewis & Haden Inc. (RLH), a private equity firm, found itself ensnared in a False Claims Act (FCA) litigation for its role in a prescription drug kickback scheme orchestrated by one of its portfolio companies,...more
On March 18, 2019, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an amended complaint-in-intervention in the False Claims Act (FCA) case against Diabetic Care Rx, LLC d/b/a Patient Care America (PCA); two of PCA’s executives; and the...more
The scope of our country’s opioid epidemic is devastating. From 1999 to 2017, more than 700,000 people have died from a drug overdose. Two-thirds of these deaths involved an opioid. On average, 195 Americans dies every day...more
Recently, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced its largest ever national health care fraud takedown, resulting in charges against 601 diverse defendants including...more
• In an unusual move, the government has decided to pursue a False Claims Act (FCA) suit against a private equity firm based on an alleged commission scheme at its pharmacy portfolio company to promote sales of products...more
In February, the Department of Justice (DOJ) intervened in a False Claims Act case alleging healthcare fraud, a common enough event. The case in question, originally began in 2015 as a whistleblower case brought by two...more
Trends & Analysis - Since our last Qui Tam Update, we have identified 39 health-related False Claims Act (“FCA”) qui tam cases that have been unsealed. Of those cases...more
On June 10, 2014, a New York federal court dismissed, in part, state and federal False Claims Act (FCA) claims brought against Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation and pharmacies to which it distributed (CVS Caremark Corp.,...more
Trends and Analysis: ..We have identified 20 health care-related qui tam cases unsealed in July 2013. About a quarter of those were filed in 2013. ..Among the cases unsealed in July, the government has declined to...more