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False Claims Act Update & Alert |
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Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund | Washington, D.C. | WWW.TAF.ORG December 18, 2007 |
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n TAF Home Page n Previous Newsletters n Email editor
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False Claims Act Update & Alert
Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund | Washington, D.C. | WWW.TAF.ORG December 18, 2007
n TAF Home Page
n Previous Newsletters
n Email editor
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Relator Wins Over DoJ Protest
Jim Marchese, the former Cell Therapeutics sales rep that was seeking a relator's award for helping the government win a $10.5 million FCA recovery, has won a $1.6 million award despite the DoJ's objections. The Judge agreed that Marchese did not immediately report the fraud, but said he did not initiate or plan the activity, and so was eligible for a 15 percent award. >> To read the opinion of judge Marsha Pechman
HealthSouth Pays $14.9 Million
HealthSouth and two doctors have agreed to pay $14.9 million ($14.2 million by the company and $700,000 from the doctors) to settle charges the company was submitting false claims to Medicare and paying illegal kickbacks to referring physicians. The settlement results from disclosures made by HealthSouth in 2004
and 2005 to the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama. >> To read more
Law and Odor at Wellcare
Wellcare made its General Counsel its Compliance Officer -- the same mistake Tenet did. That's not the only similarly says Melissa Davis at The Street: both companies also had big FBI raids, and both bragged about their compliance programs which, in hindsight, appear to have been gossamer thin. Davis also notes that a whistleblower that filed a case one day after the FBI raid is a certified fraud examiner who supervised WellCare's special investigations unit. >> To read more
Blue Cross and Blue Shield
Does Payola Politics in RI
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island has agreed to pay $20 million to avoid prosecution for steering over a half million dollars worth of business to companies run by state officials. >> To read more
More Tricky Knee Subpoenas
Wright Medical Group of Arlington, Tennessee, and Exactech of Gainesville, Fla., are the latest orthotics companies to be subpoenaed about kickbacks between orthopedic-device companies and physicians. >> To read more