False Claims Act Update & Alert
Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund | Washington, D.C. | WWW.TAF.ORG December 13, 2004
		Sign Up for this FREE Newsletter n Web Site n About TAF-EF n The False Claims Act n Previous newsletters n Email editor Please take a moment to forward this FREE electronic newsletter to others that might be interested!	House Probes Drug Fraud The House Energy and Commerce Committee is probing into why Medicaid continues to pay too much for prescription drugs. The lead witnesses at a Dec. 7 hearing on Capitol Hill were Mark Jones and Dr. John Lockwood of Ven-a-Care who noted that the Federal Government was losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year due to "marketing the spread" frauds perpetrated by generic drug manufacturers. >> To read more
			Whistleblowers Profiled The Associated Press ran an exemplary profile of False Claims Act whistleblowers which appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, Philadelphia Inquirer, Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, and more than 60 other newspapers across the U.S. Among those profiled were James Alderson (Columbia-HCA and Quorum Healthcare), John Schilling (Columbia-HCA and KPMG), and Joe Gerstein (TAP Pharmaceuticals). >> To read more
			Gambro Settled on the Cheap? The recent $350 million Gambro renal care settlement may have been settled for far too low a sum. According to the complaint, the company was ripping off Medicare and Medicaid to the tune of $1.2 billion a year, while Gambro agreed that the Government had a valid claim for $600 million. Gambro has now been sold to DaVita -- which itself is under investigation for fraud by the U.S. Department of Justice. >> To read more
			Bill Would Require Fraud Reports A bill introduced by Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) would "direct the Inspector General of the Department of Justice to submit semi-annual reports regarding settlements relating to false claims and fraud against the Federal Government." S. 3018 includes a list of items to be reported on including the amount of actual damages estimated to have been sustained and the multiple (or divisor) of the actual damages obtained. >> Read the legislation >> Read Sen. Grassley's statement
			United Healthcare Pays $3.5 M The Justice Department has announced that United Healthcare will pay $3.5 million to settle allegations of fraud stemming from the mishandling of telephone calls to a Medicare call processing center. The settlement grows out of 2001 whistleblower lawsuit filed by a former United Healthcare employee. Under the Medicare contract, United Healthcare was required to handle calls promptly, but in fact it did not do so. The company then falsely reported its performance as satisfactory to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. >> To read more
			Feds Score in Harvard Lawsuit A federal jury has determined that Harvard Economics Professor Andrei Shleifer is bound by wording in the University’s contracts with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Shleifer and co-defendant Jonathan Hay could each face triple damages of up to $104 million. Harvard was absolved of fraud charges but could still be required to pay up to $34.8 million -- the amount paid to Harvard by USAID. >> To read more