ABOUT:

About Dorsey’s FCA Now

The False Claims Act is the government’s principal tool for addressing fraud in contracting, healthcare, mortgage lending, and grant administration. FCA Now provides timely developments about the law, enforcement trends, and other insights from Dorsey’s proven FCA litigators.

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Disclaimer

By accessing the FCA Now blog, you are requesting information. The information you are requesting is not legal advice, advertising or solicitation. Transmission and receipt of the materials on the blog do not constitute legal advice, establish an attorney-client relationship, or create any duty of Dorsey to any reader. An attorney-client relationship with Dorsey may be established only by an engagement letter signed by a Dorsey lawyer. Information sent to Dorsey by persons who are not clients of the firm is not subject to any duty of confidentiality on the part of the firm.

The information on the blog may be changed without notice and is not guaranteed to be complete, correct or up-to-date, and may not reflect the most current legal developments. The opinions expressed on the blog are the opinions of the authors only and not those of Dorsey.

ATTORNEY ADVERTISING.
Some of the content on this blog is considered Attorney Advertising under the applicable rules of certain states. Results depend on a number of factors unique to each matter. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

PRIVACY POLICY STATEMENT
The privacy policy statement is set out at Data Privacy | Dorsey.

Category: Settlements

Intervention / Relators / Settlements

14 Mar, 2017

Court Examines Standard for Approval of Settlement of Qui Tam Over a Relator’s Objection

The False Claims Act (FCA) allows plaintiffs/relators to bring qui tam actions, in which the government may then elect to intervene.  The FCA also provides that “[t]he Government may settle a [qui tam] action with the defendant notwithstanding the objections of the person initiating the action if the court determines, after a hearing, that the proposed settlement is fair, adequate, and reasonable under all the...

Enforcement / Kickbacks / Settlements

19 Oct, 2016

Omnicare Inc. Settles Kickback Allegations for $28 Million

The United States Justice Department (DOJ) announced this week that Omnicare, Inc. (Omnicare), the largest nursing home pharmacy in the United States, will pay approximately $28 million dollars to resolve charges that it received kickbacks from Abbott Laboratories (Abbott) to promote Abbott’s anti-epileptic drug, Depakote, to nursing home patients. According to the press release, Omnicare, whose consultant pharmacists review nursing home resident’s medical charts and...

Healthcare / Penalties / Settlements / Stark Law

4 Oct, 2016

Former CEO of Health System Agrees to Pay $1 million to Settle False Claims Act Case with U.S. Department of Justice

In the most recent example of its continued effort to hold individuals accountable for corporate misconduct, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced on September 27, 2016, that the former CEO of Tuomey Healthcare System has agreed to pay $1 million to settle claims arising from his involvement in the hospital’s violations of the Stark Law.  In addition to the $1 million civil fine, the...

Relators / Settlements

17 Aug, 2016

Texas Diagnostic Imaging Service Settles FCA Allegations for $3.5 Million; Whistle-Blower to Receive $596,700

A recent settlement illustrates the substantial recovery available to whistle-blowers under the FCA’s qui tam provisions. Those provisions allow a qui tam plaintiff to receive typically between 15 percent and 25 percent of the proceeds of an FCA settlement.  31 U.S.C. § 3730(d). The settling party—Preferred Imaging—is a Dallas-based company that operates independent diagnostic facilities in Texas, Illinois, and Kansas. Preferred Imaging performs procedures involving the administration of contrast...

Settlements

8 Aug, 2016

Pharmaceutical Manufacturer’s Possible Settlement Shows Long-Arm of FCA

On Tuesday, August 2, 2016, pharmaceutical and biotech company Shire PLC filed a Form 8-K announcing a possible resolution to an ongoing FCA investigation into the sales and marketing tactics of Shire’s “Dermagraft” skin product.   The episode illustrates how the FCA can have significant consequences for mergers and acquisitions, imposing residual obligations years after an acquisition, and again underscores the utility of dedicated FCA due...

Healthcare / Overpayments / Settlements

2 May, 2016

Failure to Disclose Best Pricing: Pharmaceutical Companies Settle FCA Claims for $784 Million

The Department of Justice announced late last month that pharmaceutical manufacturers Wyeth and Pfizer would pay $784 million to resolve a False Claims Act investigation and qui tam lawsuit arising from Wyeth’s failure to disclose its best pricing of drugs to the government.  The case was brought under the FCA’s qui tam provisions; the relators’ share of the recovery is nearly $100 million. The case...

Corporate Integrity Agreement / Settlements / Stark Law

4 Nov, 2015

Tuomey Settles, Post-Judgment, Alleged Violations of FCA and Stark Law

The Department of Justice and Tuomey Healthcare have announced a $72.4 million settlement in a lawsuit that the DOJ touts as “another achievement for the [DOJ and DHS] Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) initiative.” The settlement follows a 2013 trial in which a jury found Tuomey had violated the False Claims Act and Stark Law by filing more than 21,000 false...

Intervention / Procedure / Settlements

29 Oct, 2015

Eighth Circuit Vacates Relators’ FCA Settlement Recovery; Concludes that the FCA “Allows Relators to Recover a Percentage of the Proceeds of the Settlement of ‘the Claim’ Brought by the Relators, and Only That Claim”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit recently vacated an award of settlement proceeds to relators of several related qui tam actions because the district court failed to make factual findings as to whether the government’s settlement with one of the defendants was based on claims that factually overlapped with the claims brought by the relators. Rille v. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, et al., No....

Byrd Amendment / False Statement / Settlements

27 Aug, 2015

Sandia Corporation Agrees to Pay $4.7 Million to Settle Allegations Related to its Lobbying Activities

On August 21, 2015, the Justice Department announced that Sandia Corporation—owned by Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defense contractor—agreed to pay $4,790,042 to settle allegations that it violated the Byrd Amendment and the False Claims Act by using federal funds for lobbying activities. The settlement with Sandia is a recent example of the Justice Department’s willingness to use the Byrd Amendment as a hook for...

Healthcare / Settlements

10 Jul, 2015

Dialysis Provider Settles Whistleblower Lawsuit for $450 Million

The Department of Justice and dialysis provider DaVita Healthcare Partners recently finalized a $450 million agreement settling claims that the company intentionally inflated Medicare billings.  The parties had filed a joint motion to stay the case, United States ex rel. et al. v. DaVita Inc., No. 07-02509 (N.D. Ga. Apr. 16, 2015), in April in order to focus on reaching a settlement. Relators Alon Vainer...