False Claims Act Update & Alert |
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Taxpayers
Against Fraud Education Fund | Washington, D.C. | WWW.TAF.ORG |
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 New
Study Shows Medicare Enforcement Saves Money The January edition of the Journal of Health Economics contains a notable article authored by David Becker of U.C. Berkeley, Daniel Kessler of Stanford, and Mark McClellan, the current head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. "Detecting Medicare Abuse" concludes that increased enforcement leads to lower billing but does not have adverse consequences for patients. >> To order the paper ($5, PDF) |
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 $8.7
Million E-Rate SettlementFor the third time, the City of San Francisco has successfully used the False Claims Act to recover millions stolen from its education system. Inter-tel agreed to pay $7 million to settle civil false claims charges, and also pleaded guilty to two criminal felony counts. Over 50 E-Rate fraud investigations are underway across the U.S. >> For more information |
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 Substance
Abuse Treatment MillCatskill Regional Medical Center has agreed to pay $1.5 million to the federal Government to settle allegations that from 1997 to 2000 it received millions of dollars for treating thousands of illegally referred alcohol and substance abuse inpatients, kicking back $52,000 monthly to an undisclosed entity. In some cases, alcohol and substance abuse patients were scooped up off Manhattan streets and delivered to the hospital, located about 100 miles from New York City. >> For more information |
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 Kindred's
Captive CustomersKindred Healthcare, which operates 252 nursing homes in 29 states, has been under investigation for fraud by the U.S. Dept. of Justice since April of 2002. The investigation concerns allegations that Kindred "knowingly defrauded" the federal government by "1) providing and billing for services that were not medically necessary or reasonable, 2) denying patients timely hospital discharge in accordance with physicians' orders in order to maintain a high patient census, and 3) altering facility documentation to support extended patient stays and Medicare billings." >> For more information |
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 Lockheed Party to
Nuke SuitA federal judge has reversed a decision he made in September and ruled that former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant operator Lockheed Martin Corp. can be sued under the False Claims Act along with subsidiaries Lockheed Martin Energy Systems Inc. and Martin Marietta Energy Systems. The case was first filed in 1999 by three company whistleblowers and the Natural Resources Defense Council, who said the companies lied about cleanup efforts in order to win bonuses. The suit was joined by the Department of Justice in 2003. >> For more information |
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 Whose Statute of
Limitations?The Supreme Court has agreed to review a Fourth Circuit decision in United States ex rel. Wilson v. Graham County Soil & Water Conservation District in which the Fourth Circuit reversed a district court’s decision to apply a three-year statute of limitations on retaliation claims under the False Claims Act. The Fourth Circuit ruled that the six year statute of limitations, which applies to other FCA violations, also applies to retaliation claims. |
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