Cancer is difficult enough to endure, with many uncomfortable procedures, without you or a loved one having to worry about undergoing unnecessary ones. But that’s exactly what it is alleged that 21st Century Oncology Inc., headquartered in Florida and the US’s biggest physician-led integrated cancer care provider, did in many…
A sleep therapy products supplier, Respironics Inc., based in Pennsylvania, agreed to resolve charges of False Claims Act violations by paying $34.8 million because of a qui tam suit brought by a whistleblower. The agreement, announced in March 2016 by the U.S. Department of Justice, claims that kickbacks in the…
Environmental regulations are part of our lives, and rightly so. We need to keep from trashing our home, this planet, for ourselves and for future generations. A lot of time, effort, and money have gone into cleaning up old messes and preventing new ones, from the fossil fuels industry to…
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that, for all of fiscal year (FY) 2015, over $3.5 billion in settlements and judgments were obtained because of fraud cases against the government brought under the False Claims Act (FCA). This marks the fourth consecutive year that recoveries exceeded $3.5 billion. It…
In the largest series of arrests for Medicare fraud to date, 243 health care workers—including 46 doctors, nurses, and other licensed medical professionals—were nabbed in a nationwide sweep. The Medicare Fraud Strike Force, which includes personnel from the FBI, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of…
Educational loan abuse and fraud are starting to see their share of whistleblowers bringing cases under the False Claims Act (FCA). Student loans taken under dubious circumstances have become multi-million-dollar moneymakers at for-profit schools like ITT and the University of Phoenix. In February, 2016, the US District Court of South…
Two whistleblowers—a cardiac nurse and a healthcare consultant—are sharing more than $3.5 million, which is their portion of a $23 million qui tam False Claims Act settlement. The case, which was resolved mid-February of 2016, involved 51 hospitals that allegedly disobeyed Medicare rules regarding coverage of implanting heart defibrillation devices.…
On December 3, 2015, the District of South Carolina’s U.S. Attorney’s Office announced that it had collected over $7 million during fiscal year 2015 for U.S. taxpayers in various criminal and civil cases. In criminal actions, roughly $4.4 million was received, while for civil actions, the amount was almost $2.7…
Whistleblower cases involving the Veterans Administration (VA) took a significant upturn in fiscal year 2015, according to the Office of Special Counsel (OSC). Although it is small—with only 140 employees—and independent, the agency’s job is to protect whistleblowers and other federal employees from prohibited personnel actions. The OSC’s 2015 whistleblower…
When you think of Medicare fraud, ambulance services might not come to mind. After all, in a life-threatening situation, you’re going to call 911 for an ambulance. You’re not going to think about kickbacks, unnecessary procedures, upcoding, and other deceitful practices happening in the ambulance industry. And yet, ambulance fraud…