CMS, the FDA,
and DoJ
have
joined a
whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2002 that
accuses
DFB
Pharmaceuticals and its marketing arm,
Healthpoint,
of
marketing
trypsin as
a bedsore
debriding
treatment
despite the fact that the drug was
unapproved for this use and had previously
been found to be ineffective. Trypsin was sold as "Xenaderm"
by Healthpoint, and sales representatives
told doctors and hospitals it could be
billed to Medicare and Medicaid. One
question remains: Why did it take the
FDA and CMS nine years to move on
this clearly-unapproved and useless product?
>>
To read more
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False Claims Act Update & Alert |
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Taxpayers
Against Fraud Education Fund | Washington, D.C. |
WWW.TAF.ORG
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n TAF Home Page n Previous Newsletters n Email editor
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 First
IRS Whistleblower Case Settles Under the New Law The IRS has settled a $20 million case under the IRS whistleblower law passed in 2006. The informant in this case will receive a $4.5 million award for their assistance and information. The IRS Whistleblower office received nearly 1,000 tips involving more than 3,000 taxpayers in fiscal years 2008 and 2009, and thousands more have come in since, each alleging more than $2 million in unpaid taxes. "This law is not designed to snag the guppies, but to harpoon the whales,” said a spokesperson for Taxpayers Against Fraud. >> To read more |
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 Verizon
to pay $93 MillionVerizon Communications has agreed to pay the United States over $93 million to settle a False Claims Act case involving taxes and surcharges heaped on to phone bills presented to the U.S. General Services Administration. >> To read more |
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 DoJ
Joins Xenaderm Case
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 Pay
to Place Heart Surgery?The New York Times reports that at the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, there's a 95 percent chance that if you get a pacemaker or defibrillator, it will be a Biotronik brand device despite the fact that across the U.S., this company accounts for barely 5% of the heart-device market. One clue as to what's going on is that a Biotronik sales firm by the name of Western Medical hired UMCSN doctors as consultants, and within a year Biotronik devices were de rigeur. A federal investigation is now underway. >> To read more |
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 Billions
Down the DrainThe March 2011 edition of the HHS-OIG's Compendium of Unimplemented Recommendations is out, summarizing the reforms and enforcement actions needed to recover billions and billions of Medicare and Medicaid dollars lost to waste, fraud and mismanagement. >> To read the report |
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 Nashville
Wants Fraud Cases!
Jerry Martin, the U.S.
Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, wants to
focus on health care frauds and as a consequence his office
has doubled the number of
prosecutors in the civil division who handle such cases.
Nashville's health industry bills nearly $30 billion a year
thanks
to
56 health care
companies headquartered in
the city. >>
To read more
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 This
Sole Man Got the Boot Rickey Kanter, the former CEO of Dr. Comfort, a company that sells special shoes and inserts for diabetics, has pled guilty to mail fraud and agreed to pay a $27 million civil fine to settle charges his company billed substandard products to Medicare and Medicaid. Kanter also faces prison time and will be excluded for the next 15 years from managing any company that bills the federal government. >> To read more |
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 German
Firm Pays $9.1 Million for Not Guarding the U.S. Army
German security firm Securitas GmbH
Werkschutz has agreed to pay the U.S. Government $9.1
million to settle allegations the
company billed the Army for
guard hours that were not worked at U.S. military bases.
>>
To read more
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