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$8 Million Settlement in DynCorp Qui Tam Lawsuit

Posted on April 26th, 2011 No Comments

The United States government has settled a qui tam lawsuit against DynCorp International LLC and The Sandi Group.

According to an announcement from the United States Justice Department, DynCorp has agreed to pay $7.7 million to resolve allegations that it submitted inflated claims for the construction of container camps in Iraq. The Sandi Group agreed to pay $1.01 to settle allegations that it sought reimbursement for danger pay that it falsely claimed to have given U.S. expatriate employees working in Iraq.

The qui tam lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, was originally brought by two former employees of The Sandi Group. As a result of the settlement, the two whistleblowers, Drew Halldorson and Brian Evancho, will receive up to $481,710.

The lawsuit alleged that DynCorp and it’s subcontractor, The Sandi Group, submitted or caused to be submitted false claims for payment under DynCorp’s contract with the State Department to provide civilian police training in Iraq. Neither defendant admitted wrongdoing as part of the settlement.

For assistance with a Qui Tam lawsuit against a government contractor, please contact a Whistleblower Lawyer of Tycko & Zavareei, LLP, by calling 202-973-0900.

$1.9M Settlement in Rex Healthcare Qui Tam Lawsuit

Posted on April 14th, 2011 No Comments

Rex Healthcare has agreed to pay $1.9 million to settle a qui tam lawsuit that claims it overbilled Medicare for various treatments.

According to court documents, the allegations of overbilling stem from a whistleblower lawsuit filed by an Alabama man and a Wisconsin man. Most of the treatments for which the hospital settled claims were for kyphoplasty, a spinal fracture treatment. Rex is one of 26 hospitals in nine states that have settled federal allegations on kyphoplasty investigations.

According to the United States Department of Justice, Rex classified cases as inpatient admissions from 2004 to 2007 to increase payments, when less expensive outpatient treatments would have been more appropriate.
The $1.9 million settlement was a fraction of the hospital’s net patient revenue of $575 million last year.

If you have information of fraud against the government, please contact a Qui Tam Attorneys of Tycko & Zavareei, LLP, by calling 202-973-0900.

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Nursing Home Complaint Center Encourages Healthcare Fraud Lawsuits

Posted on March 30th, 2011 No Comments

The Nursing Home Complaint Center is urging healthcare workers to step forward with information pertaining to Medicare or Medicaid fraud.

According to a Nursing Home Complaint Center press release, Medicare fraud is a “$60 billion a year business in the United states.” The agency is encouraging healthcare professionals to come forward with information regarding fraud, saying the Qui Tam provision of the False Claims Act could entitle them to a reward.

“We honestly believe there are 1000’s of US healthcare, or medical industry managers, or executives, who are sitting on a jackpot,” the press release says. “They have clear, and significant proof their employer is knowingly defrauding the federal, or state government’s Medicare, or Medicaid programs, out of millions.”

If you have information regarding healthcare fraud, please contact the Healthcare fraud lawyers of Tycko & Zavareei LLP by calling 202-973-0900.

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Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. Named in Qui Tam Lawsuit

Posted on March 22nd, 2011 No Comments

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. bribed doctors to prescribe the company’s drugs, according to a qui tam lawsuit filed by the California insurance commissioner.

Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said at a press conference last week that sales people with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. provided physicians with trips to basketball camps and other kickbacks to boost prescriptions of its drugs, including Plavix and Pravachol. The lawsuit is the largest health insurance fraud case ever pursued in California, Jones said.

According to court documents, California insurance companies spent $3.5 billion to cover the costs of the drugs involved in the lawsuit. The lawsuit seeks $10,000 for each fraudulent insurance claim caused by the alleged kickbacks, as well as the disgorgement of illegal profits, and triple the amount of damages.

“This sort of fraud has long plagued our health insurance system, leading to billions of dollars annually in added healthcare costs nationally,” Jones said in a statement.

Bristol-Myers spokesman Laura Hortas said the company “believes this lawsuit has no merit and the company will defend itself vigorously.”

If you have information pertaining to healthcare fraud, please contact a Qui Tam Lawyer of Tycko & Zavareei, LLP, by calling 202-973-0900.

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Government Intervenes in Depakote Qui Tam Lawsuits

Posted on March 15th, 2011 No Comments

Federal prosecutors are intervening in three qui tam lawsuits against Abbott Laboratiories that claim the drug maker illegally promoted the epilepsy medication Depakote.

According to officials with the United States Department of Justice, the government has decided to intervene in whistleblower lawsuits brought by former Abbott employees who claim that the company gave doctors seminars in off-label use of Depakote and then lied about what the seminars were about. The lawsuits claim Abbott told doctors they could use Depakote to treat dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Depakote is an anti-seizure drug approved by the FDA for the treatment of epilepsy. The drug is not approved for the treatment of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. It is illegal for drug companies to promote “off-label” uses that have not been approved by the FDA.

The details of the qui tam complaints have been sealed by the Justice Department.

If you have information regarding healthcare fraud, please contact the Qui Tam Lawyers of Tycko & Zavareei, LLP, by calling 202-973-0900.

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New Mexico Joins JM Eagle Qui Tam Lawsuit

Posted on March 9th, 2011 No Comments

The state of New Mexico has joined a qui tam lawsuit against JM Eagle that alleges the plastics manufacturer defrauded customers by selling substandard PVC pipe.

New Mexico is the latest of a number of government entities that have joined the whistleblower lawsuit. The state of Nevada, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and 47 municipalities and water districts in California have filed notice with the court that they are joining the case.

New Mexico Attorney General King said JM Eagle “knowingly sold the State substandard PVC pipe, and the Fraud Against Taxpayers Act provides a powerful vehicle for righting this wrong.”

The qui tam lawsuit was originally filed by whistleblower John Hendrix, a former engineer at JM’s product assurance division in New Jersey. Hendrix was fired less than two weeks after he wrote a memo to company management about his concerns that the tensile strength of the PVC pipe was below industry standards.

Hendrix told federal investigators that the plastics company “lived by the motto: ‘There is no shame in lying, but there is shame in getting caught lying.’”

If you have information of fraud against the government, please contact the Qui Tam Attorneys of Tycko & Zavareei, LLP, by calling 202-973-0900.

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Judge Clears Way for Johnson & Johnson Qui Tam Lawsuit

Posted on March 3rd, 2011 No Comments

A federal judge has denied a motion to dismiss a qui tam lawsuit filed against Johnson & Johnson, which accuses the company of involvement in an illegal kickback scheme.

The company sought to have claims brought by the Department of Justice, a number of whistleblowers, and numerous states dismissed, saying that the so-called illegal kickbacks were completely legal rebates. U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns found, however, the plaintiffs had sufficient evidence to go forward with the complaint. Stearns did remove several plaintiffs from the case, including the states of Nevada, Texas, and Illinois. Kentucky, Indiana, and Virginia remain part of the lawsuit.

The qui tam lawsuit, filed January 15, 2010, claims Johnson & Johnson was involved in a kickback scheme to push their antipsychotic drugs, namely Risperdal, on elderly nursing home residents that did not need them. According to the complaint, the drug-maker paid $50 million to Omnicare between 1999 and 2004 to get the company to prescribe Risperdal to elderly patients with dementia. The lawsuit also claims Johnson & Johnson hid those kickbacks as payments for services that Omnicare never actually provided.

To discuss filing a Qui Tam Lawsuit, please contact the Whistleblower lawyers of Tycko & Zavareei, LLP, by calling 202-973-0900.

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DOJ to Join KBR Qui Tam Lawsuit

Posted on February 23rd, 2011 No Comments

The U.S. government said Wednesday it will intervene in a qui tam lawsuit filed against Kellogg Brown and Root, which claims the Army contractor defrauded American troops by submitting false claims.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, KBR provided support services to troops in Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan under LogCAP III, the third generation of the U.S. Army’s Logistics Civil Augmentation Program. The LogCAP program, which began in 1988, allows the U.S. Army to use private contractors for logistical support, food service, transportation, laundry service, recreation, and to build and run base camps. KBR received its first LogCAP contract in 1992.

Former KBR employee-turned-whistleblower James A. Brady III filed a qui tam lawsuit against the Houston-based company in 2007, which claimed the company had violated the False Claims Act because it was unable to account for materials that were billed as part of an operations and maintenance subcontract with a Turkish company, Yukel-Reysas.

The False Claims Act allows the government to recover three times its damages, plus civil penalties. The qui tam provisions of the law entitle a whistleblower, Brady, to as much as 25 percent of any funds recovered from the lawsuit.

Assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil division, Tony West, announced the government’s intervening at a press conference, Wednesday, saying: “As we’ve done today, the Justice Department will take action against those whom we believe charge the taxpayers for goods and services that were not provided to American troops.”

If you have information of fraud against the government, please contact a Qui Tam Lawyer of Tycko & Zavareei, LLP, by calling 202-973-0900.

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DOJ Joins Guidant Qui Tam Lawsuit

Posted on February 16th, 2011 No Comments

The Department of Justice has joined a Qui Tam lawsuit brought against Boston Scientific Corp. and their Guidant subsidiary over defective heart devices.

According to U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota documents, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit this week against Guidant. The lawsuit claims Guidant sold the Ventak Prizm 2 ant the Renewal 1 and 2 implantable cardioverter defibrillators with the knowledge that they were defective and subject to malfunctions. The devices send electric pulses to the recipients heart when they detect an irregular beat. The Guidant defibrillators, however, could suffer an electric arc that could short-circuit the devices.

The DOJ contends that Guidant was perpetrating fraud against the government by asking for Medicare reimbursements for patients who received the ICDs. According to the lawsuit, Guidant knew about problems with the heart devices as early as April 2002, and continued to sell off old stock of defective products.

The lawsuit was originally filed by a recipient of one of the defective defibrillators, James Allen. Under the qui tam provision of the False Claims Act, Allen is entitled to receive a portion of any money the government recovers from the offenders.

If you have information pertaining to medicare fraud, please contact a Qui Tam Attorney of Tycko & Zavareei by calling 202-973-0900.

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Microsoft and Qui Tam Litigation

Posted on February 11th, 2011 No Comments

Microsoft Corp. is seeking to put an end to qui tam litigation for false patent marking, the company said last week.

A post by Microsoft’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel Brad Smith and Vice President Deputy General Counsel Horacio Guitierrez, outlined aspects of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that the company believes need to be reformed. “In our view, the time has arrived to move beyond old controversies and focus on ensuring that the United States Patent and Trade Mark Office has the resources and tools it needs to improve patent quality and continues to tackle the enormous backlog it faces today,” the post said.

Smith and Guiteirrez said they company believes qui tam litigation for false patent marking, the practice wherein individuals can sue manufacturers for incorrectly including patent numbers on their products, should be a thing of the past. A qui tam lawsuit was filed last year against Apple, Sprint, Verizon, and Samsung which claimed the companies falsely marketed products with expired patents, or patents that did not cover the marked products, “with the intent to deceive the public about the patent coverage for their products.”

To speak with the Qui Tam Lawyers of Tycko & Zavareei, LLP, please call 202-973-0900.

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