Taxpayers Against Fraud, The False Claims Act Legal Center (TAF) is a nonprofit, public interest organization dedicated to combating fraud against the Federal Government through the promotion and use of the Federal False Claims Act and its qui tam provisions. Qui tam is a unique mechanism in the law that allows persons and entities with evidence of fraud against federal programs or contracts to sue the wrongdoer on behalf of the Government. Enforcement of the False Claims Act and its qui tam provisions has returned nearly $10 billion to the United States Treasury over the past 15 years.
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October 3 , 2001 Settlement of $875 Million Medicare/Medicaid Drug Fraud Yields New Funds For Trust Fund And Could Deter Overcharging Initiated by whistleblowers and joined by the United States Department of Justice, two civil False Claims Act lawsuits charged TAP with paying illegal kickbacks to doctors who dispensed the company’s high priced prostate cancer drug (Lupron). TAP also allegedly conspired with doctors to charge Medicare and Medicare beneficiaries for free samples of Lupron (taxpayers paid 80 percent and beneficiaries paid 20 percent of the drug cost). Federal criminal charges of conspiring to pay kickbacks to doctors and other customers have been brought against one physician and six TAP managers, the Justice Department announced. In addition, a separate lawsuit brought by Medicare beneficiaries charges TAP with illegally inflating Lupron’s average wholesale price, according to news reports.
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October 1 , 2001
TAF Releases Reducing Health Care Fraud: An Assessment of the Impact of the False Claims Act by New Directions for Policy