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
Georgia Laboratory Owner Pleads Guilty to Felony Anti-Kickback Statute Violations - On February 28, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the guilty plea of Andrew Maloney, who, along with his clinical laboratory...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
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
The reach of the Anti-Kickback Statute and the False Claims Act is broad. As a result, AKS liability is a real and significant risk for healthcare companies and providers. Healthcare companies and providers have to resolve...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
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
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 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
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
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
Durable medical equipment (DME) is particularly important for many Medicare beneficiaries. However, companies that manufacture and sell DME need to be careful because there are strict federal regulations outlining almost...more
According to court documents, the defendant admitted to, among other things, distributing unnecessary compound prescriptions by adjusting prescriptions and paying recruiters commissions for procuring prescriptions for...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
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