Actavis to Pay $118.6M for Medicaid Fraud
January 12, 2012 by casey
On January 4, 2012, Bloomberg News reported that units of Actavis Group Hf agreed to pay $118.6 million to resolve claims that they caused the U.S. and four state governments to overpay for drugs.
The settlement, filed Dec. 29 in federal court in Boston, followed an $84 million accord announced a day earlier in a lawsuit by the state of Texas, bringing the total to $202.6 million. In February, a state court jury in Austin ordered units of the Iceland-based company to pay $170 million for inflating billings to the Texas Medicaid program.
In the larger accord, Actavis settled with the U.S., New York, Florida, South Carolina and Iowa. The U.S., Florida and Texas cases were filed by Ven-A-Care of the Florida Keys Inc., a specialty pharmacy which prosecuted them civilly.
Ven-A-Care sued under the U.S. False Claims Act and similar statutes in Florida and Texas, which lets whistle-blowers sue on behalf of the government and share in any recovery. The states pursued their cases separately.
Ven-A-Care claimed that Actavis defrauded the U.S. and state governments by falsely reporting inflated prices of drugs. Actavis knew that the governments would use those false reports to set higher reimbursement rates for Medicaid, Ven-A-Care claimed. Actavis denied wrongdoing in the settlements.
The Justice Department didn’t join the case, although it recovered $108 million. Between the two cases, Ven-A-Care collected $15.6 million, court records show.
If you are seeing fraud on the government, contact us by calling 800-377-1812 for strictly confidential advice from experienced counsel, with no fee obligation.
Sandoz Agrees to Pay $150 Million to Resolve Drug-Price Case
December 11, 2011 by casey
On November 23, 2011, Bloomberg News announced the settlement of a False Claims Act case in which Novartis AG’s Sandoz unit agreed to pay $150 million to resolve claims that it caused the U.S. and state governments in California and Florida to overpay for drugs.
The U.S. will recover $86.5 million, California will get $40 million and Florida will receive $15.2 million under the agreement filed Nov. 16 in federal court in Boston.
Ven-A-Care of the Florida Keys Inc., a specialty pharmacy, sued Sandoz under the U.S. False Claims Act, as well as similar laws in California and Florida. Ven- A-Care will get $8.3 million from Florida and California. Its share of the U.S. recovery wasn’t stated in court documents.
If you are seeing fraud on the government, contact us by calling 800-377-1812 for strictly confidential advice from experienced counsel, with no fee obligation.
Pfizer to Pay $14.5 Million for Off-Label Promotion of Detrol
October 26, 2011 by casey
On October 21, 2011, the US Department of Justice announced that the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. agreed to pay $14.5 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations related to its marketing of the drug Detrol.
The settlement addresses allegations that Pfizer illegally marketed Detrol, a drug for the treatment of overactive bladder, for use in male patients suffering from benign prostatic hypertrophy and several allied conditions, for which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had not approved the drug as safe and effective.
Under the terms of the settlement, the $14.5 million recovery will be divided between the United States and participating state Medicaid programs, with $11,878,846 going to the federal government and $2,621,154 going to state Medicaid programs. Under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act, whistleblowers will receive a $3,282,019 share of the federal recovery.
“Whistleblowers play an important role in protecting taxpayer funds from fraud and abuse,” said Tony West, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “Settlements like this one help maintain the integrity of FDA’s drug approval process and support important federal and state health care programs.”
If you are seeing fraud on the government, contact us by calling 800-377-1812 for strictly confidential advice from experienced counsel, with no fee obligation.
Jim VanderLinden featured on Minnesota Public Radio
September 27, 2011 by nick
The problem of Medicaid fraud has been in the news a lot lately in Minnesota. These small victories have only scratched the surface, as many cases of large-scale Medicaid fraud have – as of yet – continued without consequence. Minnesota Public Radio’s Mark Olson recently interviewed our own Jim Vanderlindenfor a report on the fight against Medicaid fraud.
St. Louis Park attorney James Vander Linden represents whistleblowers, company insiders filing claims for money recovered from employers suspected of stealing funds. He has spent years trying to recover Medicaid and Medicare dollars, and he doesn’t think the government has enough muscle to go after the big time health care fraud perpetrators.
“The real problem,” he says, “is corporate America.”
Read the rest or listen to the story below.
