Monitoring the Pulse of Health Care and Life Sciences
*This post was co-authored by Paul Palma, legal intern at Robinson+Cole. Paul is not admitted to practice law.
On September 30, 2024, Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida issued an order in United States ex rel. Clarissa Zafirov v. Florida Medical Associates, LLC, holding that the…
*This post was co-authored by Lily Denslow, legal intern at Robinson+Cole. Lily is not admitted to practice law.
On June 27, 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced its 2024 National Health Care Fraud Enforcement Action, which resulted in criminal charges against 193 defendants for alleged participation in various health care fraud schemes alleged to…
This post is co-authored by Seth Orkand, co-chair of Robinson+Cole’s Government Enforcement and White-Collar Defense Team.
On April 29, 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a $1.3 million settlement (Settlement) with a South Carolina clinical laboratory marketer and his marketing company, and three physicians and their medical practices in North Carolina…
As the year comes to a close, the government has signaled a specific focus on clinical laboratories for 2023. On December 6, 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued a Report entitled, “Labs With Questionably High Billing for Additional Tests Alongside COVID-19 Tests Warrant Further Scrutiny” (Report). The Report discusses why the study pertaining to the billing of additional tests alongside COVID-19 testing was conducted, how it was conducted, and what the key takeaways of the study are. This was followed by OIG’s issuance in mid-December of a Data Brief reviewing Medicare Part B spending on lab tests entitled, “Medicare Part B Spending on Lab Tests Increased in 2021, Driven by Higher Volume of COVID-19 Tests, Genetic Tests and Chemistry Tests” (Data Brief). Continue Reading OIG Issues Reports Reviewing Laboratory Billing Practices and Noting Increased Spending by Medicare Part B on Laboratory Tests
On October 17, 2022, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a $13 million settlement with health care services provider Sutter Health, which arose from alleged violations of the federal False Claims Act (FCA). These alleged FCA violations relate to Sutter Health billing the United States for toxicology screening tests performed by other labs.Continue Reading DOJ Announces $13 Million Settlement Related to Improper Billing for Lab Tests
A physician in Washington state pled guilty on September 28, 2022, to a criminal charge of conspiring to accept kickbacks related to fraudulent genetic testing. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), the physician ordered certain genetic testing for Medicare beneficiaries that he was not treating and with whom a physician-patient relationship was not established as part of the scheme. According to the plea agreement accepted by the physician, the physician would be connected by telemarketers to the beneficiaries for a few minutes, the physician would order the diagnostic test, the labs would then bill for the test, and another company billed Medicare for the purported telemedicine visit. The physician received almost $168,000 in kickbacks for ordering the medically-unnecessary testing and other services, which resulted in over $18 million being paid by Medicare.Continue Reading The DOJ Continues to Prosecute Providers for Fraudulent Telemarketing and Telehealth
Mark Schena, the President of Arrayit Corporation, has been found guilty by a jury for violations of the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act (EKRA), healthcare fraud, wire fraud, and securities fraud.Continue Reading A COVID-19 Laboratory Testing Conviction under EKRA
HHS-OIG issued a new Special Fraud Alert on relationships with “purported telemedicine companies” on July 20, 2022. The Special Fraud Alert comes on the heels of a nationally coordinated takedown charging dozens of individuals criminally for their participation in an allegedly fraudulent scheme related to telemedicine, laboratories, and durable medical equipment (“DME”).[1] However, the alert comes after focus on telemedicine fraud cases in particular since 2019. The Special Fraud Alert identifies several characteristics of concern and common elements that individuals and companies should be aware of.Continue Reading Suspect Characteristics Identified under a Telehealth Special Fraud Alert
Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont recently signed into law Public Act No. 22-58, “An Act Concerning the Department of Public Health’s Recommendations Regarding Various Revisions to the Public Health Statutes” (the Act). The Act is an omnibus bill that includes a number of notable updates to state laws concerning health care and hospitals, certain of which are summarized below.Continue Reading Connecticut Enacts Legislation Making Various Changes to Public Health Laws
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently undertaken a number of notable actions with respect to vaccines in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Below is an overview of these actions and related COVID-19 vaccine information:
Full Approval of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine for 18+
On January 31, 2022, the FDA announced its full approval (licensing) of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine for individuals 18 and older. The Moderna vaccine had been administered under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the FDA since December 18, 2020. This is the second COVID-19 vaccine to be approved by the FDA following approval of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine on August 23, 2021. Notably, the approved Moderna COVID-19 vaccine will be marketed and known as the ‘Spikevax.’Continue Reading COVID-19 Vaccine Update – February 2022
