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
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
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 between August 21 and September 20, 2022, including a guilty plea from a telemedicine physician who wrote prescriptions for...more
DOJ Files Complaint in AWP False Claims Act Suit Against Pharmaceutical Ingredient Seller - On November 8, 2021, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it intervened in a qui tam suit and filed a False Claims Act...more
St. Jude Medical agreed to pay $27 million to settle False Claims Act charges that it knowingly sold a defective heart device to health care facilities. St. Jude was acquired by Abbott Laboratories in early 2017....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
The Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) published a Special Fraud Alert on November 16, 2020 (the Alert) regarding a common practice within the pharmaceutical and medical device...more
Medical device maker Merit Medical Systems (“MMS”) agreed to pay $18 million to resolve allegations that the company submitted false claims to Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE by paying kickbacks to physicians and hospitals to...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
Recently the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a statement that it had intervened in a False Claims Act (FCA) case against Insys Therapeutics, Inc. and consolidated five separate qui tam cases into one case, U.S. ex rel...more
The United States Attorney’s Office (USAO) for the Middle District of Florida (USAO-MDFL) prosecuted several civil health care fraud matters in 2016 and issued related press releases. A review of the USAO-MDFL’s criminal and...more
The False Claims Act (FCA) imposes liability on individuals and companies who defraud or submit false claims to the federal government. The FCA allows the federal government to seek treble damages, civil penalties and...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