False Claims Act Update & Alert
	Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund | Washington, D.C. | WWW.TAF.ORG           April 27, 2011
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		Subscribe to this FREE Newsletter Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz n TAF Home Page n Previous Newsletters n Email editor   Please take a moment to forward this FREE electronic newsletter to others that might be interested!	CVS Agrees To Pay $17.5 Million Pharmacy chain CVS has agreed to pay $17.5 million to settle a False Claims Act case, brought by a whistleblower in Minnesota, which charged the company with collecting excessive funds from Medicaid in 10 states:  California, Indiana, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevada, Rhode Island, Minnesota and Alabama.>> To read more
			HHS Moves to Exclude Forest Labs CEO HHS is moving to exclude Howard Solomon, the CEO of Forest Laboratories. Solomon, whose company refused to phase out an unapproved medicine and who had been personally warned by the FDA to quit sales of the medicine, is fighting exclusion despite the solid paper trail. Lew Morris, chief counsel for HHS OIG, says exclusion notices like those sent to Solomon are designed to "alter the cost-benefit calculus of the corporate executives." >> To read more
			Intermune's Ex-CEO Gets Nailed W. Scott Harkonen, the former chief executive officer of Intermune has been nailed (but not jailed) for a deceptive press release written nine years ago to promote off-label sales of Actimmune a drug used to treat lung disease. Harkonen has not actually worked for Intermune in the last eight years, and the FCA case against Intermune was settled five years ago. >> To read more
			Glaxo's Former VP Goes to Trial Lauren Stevens, a former GSK Vice President and General Counsel, goes to court this week on charges that she lied to and withheld information from the FDA over the off-label marketing of Wellbutrin.  Ms. Stevens faces 20 years for obstruction and false claims, and DoJ is seeking to compel James Millar, a VP of strategic pricing, contracting and marketing, to take the stand. >> To read more
			Marketing Research or Gateway to Payola? The Supreme Court has just heard arguments in Sorrell v. IMS Health, a case that asks whether it's legal for a state to restrict drug company access to purchased private prescription information in order to market their products. Is aggregated health care data that is used to drive drug sales any different than aggregated demographic data that is used to locate gasoline stations? >> To read more
			The Craigslist Doctors Yousuf Masood, an Elizabeth, New Jersey doctor hired two people from a Craigslist ad and paid them as little as $10 an hour to treat patients, even though neither were licensed to practice medicine in the U.S. Masood then billed as if he had done the work himself,  making him the top Medicaid drug prescribing doctor in New Jersey in 2009 with over $9 million in prescriptions. >> To read more
			Tenet as Whistleblower? Tenet Healthcare is blowing the whistle on Community Health Systems which has been trying to acquire it.  In a 70-page SEC complaint, Tenet says Community bilked Medicare for over $280 million between 2006 and 2009. Tenet hopes the complaint launches an investigation which derails CHS's acquisition scheme. >> To read more
			Dyncorps to Pay $8.7 Million for Iraq Fraud DynCorp and The Sandi Group have agreed to pay $8.7 million to resolve a False Claims Act case alleging the companies set up inflated costs associated with the construction of "container camps" used to provide civilian police training in Iraq. >> To read more
			Unimplemented Recommendations? The title sounds like a joke:  The Compendium of Unimplemented Recommendations. In fact, this little volume is HHS's "Big Book of Fraud," summarizing recommendations that, if implemented, would "result in cost savings and/or improvements in program efficiency and effectiveness." If you're looking for "waste, fraud and abuse" in the public health care sector, this is a good place to start!
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