On July 13, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tom Price, M.D., announced the Department of Justice’s largest ever health care fraud enforcement action. The work of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, established in 2007, led to 412 defendants being charged with health…
There are currently two False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam cases against United Health Group (UHG) pending in the Central District of California. The cases are: U.S. ex rel. Benjamin Poehling v. UnitedHealth Group, Inc. and U.S. ex rel. Swoben v. Secure Horizons, et al. The cases were brought by…
A radiation therapy center based in Lancaster agreed to pay $3 million to the federal government to resolve a claim that it committed healthcare fraud for close to 10 years. A qui tam suit based on the federal False Claims Act, filed by former employee Jared Shindler, alleged that Valley…
The University of California recently announced that it uncovered evidence of a fraudulent health care scheme targeting students. Local health care providers would recruit and encourage students to enroll in fake clinical trials or apply for fake jobs. This allowed them to gain the student’s personal and health plan information.…
The federal government has once against settled a qui tam claim based on the False Claims Act (FCA) with a medical provider. In April, the government announced it came to an agreement with dermatologist and surgeon Dr. Norman A. Brooks, M.D., for $2,681.400 based on false billings to Medicare. Dr.…
In the qui tam case of BlueWave Healthcare v. U.S., the government was allowed to execute writs of attachment against both real and personal property and writs of garnishment against bank accounts of the defendants under the Federal Debt Collection Procedures Act (FDCPA). The defendant’s attempted to appeal the denial…
We can tell you that the False Claims Act is a powerful tool for fighting the growing epidemic of health care fraud in the United States. We prefer, however, to show you by citing some of the biggest verdicts and settlements in the field. This week, we highlight a settlement…
The False Claims Act (“FCA” or “the Act”) is one of the most important tools we have in the fight against health care fraud and other frauds on the federal government. When an organization or individual knowingly takes more money from the government than the law allows or otherwise submits…
In Fiscal Year 2015, the government, often with the assistance of private whistleblowers, recovered more than $3.5 billion using the False Claims Act to target companies and individuals who attempted to commit fraud and steal money from federal government programs. We took a broad look at these recoveries a couple…
One of the reasons we write about health care fraud is to make people aware of the true cost of these schemes. These crimes are ultimately financial in nature, with scammers stealing billions (not a typo!) each year from government programs that are already operating on strained budgets. As if…