False Claims Act Update & Alert
Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund | Washington, D.C. | WWW.TAF.ORG July 3, 2007
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			Cash for Docs, Drugs for Tots The New York Times reports some astounding data out of Vermont, where "officials disclosed Tuesday that drug company payments to psychiatrists in the state more than doubled last year, to an average of $45,692 each from $20,835 in 2005."  Apparently, the more psychiatrists earn from drug makers, the more they prescribe atypical antipsychotic medications to children.  >> To read more
			No More Business as Usual CMS Administrator Leslie V. Norwalk has "had enough," and in a move to stamp out Medicare fraud in Florida and Southern California, is requiring every medical equipment provider -- about 7,500 firms -- to reapply for a license.
			Texas is Latest State to Pass Muster with HHS The Texas False Claims Act is the latest state to pass muster with the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services as being compliant with the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.
			New York's Fantastic Four It's clobbering time.  New York state's new Medicaid Inspector General's office has to recover $1.6 billion by 2011 or the state will lose just about that much in promised federal aid.  $1.6 billion is more than 15 times the highest amount ever collected through audits in a single year in New York.  The good news is that New York has the right people on the job:  Jim Sheehan, who has more than 20 years of experience prosecuting health care fraud for the U.S. Department of Justice; Andrew Cuomo, New York's new Attorney General who has promised to come down hard on Medicaid fraud; Governor Elliot Spitzer, whose credentials as a fraud fighter are nothing short of legendary, and; Heidi Wendel, the new head of the New York Medicaid Fraud Control Unit who, as a U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, prosecuted the 2005 case against Beth Israel Medical Center that resulted in a $73 million settlement.  >> To read more
			Growing No-Bid Government Rep. Henry Waxman, Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has released a new report which reveals that annual federal procurement spending has crossed the $400 billion threshold, and that more than half of this spending has been awarded without full and open competition.  >> To read more