The news about how the U.S. False Claims Act (FCA) is adjudicated in the courts is typically dismal, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently provided an exception.
U.S. deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco recently outlined some new programs related to federal enforcement across the economy, including some novel elements related to artificial intelligence. However, the more important take-away, according to Preston Pugh of Crowell & Moring LLP, is that the Department of Justice (DOJ) continues to work to make the legal environment more friendly to would-be whistleblowers, thus increasing the risk for companies inside and outside the life sciences.
U.S. deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco recently outlined some new programs related to federal enforcement across the economy, including some novel elements related to artificial intelligence (AI).
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has released the metrics for prosecutions under the False Claims Act (FCA) for fiscal year 2023, ringing up recoveries of nearly $2.7 billion, the 15th consecutive year in which recoveries exceeded $2 billion.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced in May 2023 that it had obtained a judgment of more than $487 million against the parent company of Precision Lens for alleged violations of the False Claims Act (FCA), but the amount of that decision has been overturned. In a Feb. 8 decision, the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota decreed that the judgment be reduced to less than $217 million, an outcome which suggests that some of the more excessive fines levied against health care companies will be viewed with more skepticism upon appeal.
Fraud on federal health programs often revolves around illicit billings for in vitro diagnostics, but the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has added mobile cardiac positron emission tomography (PET) to the list of technologies that have been used to violate the law.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced a conviction obtained in federal court of an employee of a medical device manufacturer who was charged with forging documents that purported that his employer had obtained clearance for two medical devices. Peter Stoll III, who was employed by Aesculap Inc., of Center Valley, Pa., will serve 12 months in prison and a year of supervised release in one of the most egregious examples of fraudulent med tech behavior in recent memory.
One of the more significant enforcement actions to date in 2024 is the $13 million hit taken by the owner of a clinical lab in New Jersey for allegations of payment of kickbacks for unnecessary testing, suggesting that this new year will be a robust one for federal fraud enforcement in the U.S.
The U.S. Office of Inspector General (OIG) reported that it and Philips Respironics have come to terms over allegations that the company violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by offering free CPAP masks to operators of sleep clinics
Biotelemetry Inc. and its subsidiary, Lifewatch Services Inc., agreed to pay $14.7 million to settle a whistleblower case alleging overbilling for remote cardiac monitoring. The qui tam case contended that the company’s online portal for its ACT-3L/MCT-3L device and its staff consistently and intentionally forced physicians’ staff to select or themselves selected the most expensive application for the device, despite intent and even written instructions to choose a less expensive service.