Below is an excerpt of a Robinson+Cole legal update co-authored by Government Enforcement and White-Collar Defense Team co-chair  Seth Orkand and member David Carney.

On March 7, 2024, Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Lisa Monaco announced the contours of a new Department of Justice (DOJ) pilot program (Pilot) offering financial incentives to individual whistleblowers who report

On November 15, 2023, the U.S Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a $45.6 million consent judgment (Settlement) with six skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), as well as the owner of the SNFs and its management company which managed the SNFs, to resolve alleged violations of the False Claims Act (FCA) tied to medical director arrangements violating the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS). The Settlement is notable for its inclusion of the owner and the management company in addition to the SNFs, which indicates DOJ’s interest in scrutinizing the actions of individuals and management entities in connection with problematic arrangements under federal fraud and abuse laws.Continue Reading DOJ Settlement Targets Owner and Management Company in Addition to Post-Acute Care Facilities

On Monday, October 2, 2023, the New York Office of the Medicaid Inspector General (OMIG) published its Annual Report for 2022. The Report details the various efforts that New York’s Medicaid program undertook in 2022 to accrue $3.4 billion in recoveries and cost avoidance.Continue Reading New York OMIG Issues 2022 Annual Report

Below is an excerpt of an article  published in the May 2023 issue of  Health Law Connections, the member magazine of the American Health Law Association. Kate and Conor were assisted on this article by Health Law Group intern Paul Sevigny.

COVID-19 has driven increased telehealth access and technology-based health care services.

On March 29, 2023, the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office for the Eastern District of Michigan announced a notable set of three settlements (collectively, the Settlement) in excess of $69 million dollars total with a regional hospital system (Hospital) and two individual physicians, respectively.Continue Reading Stark Settlement Targeting Hospital and Physicians a Reminder for Health Care Organizations

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

On September 26, 2022, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a $900 million settlement with pharmaceutical company Biogen Inc., which arose from alleged violations of the federal False Claims Act (FCA) and Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) tied to payments from the company to physicians, which were allegedly intended to induce prescription of Biogen’s drugs. The matter initiated as a qui tam whistleblower complaint filed by an employee under the FCA.Continue Reading DOJ Announces $900 Million Settlement Tied to Speaker Bureau Payments to Physicians

Excerpt of a contributed article published in Medical Economics on November 3, 2020.

These waivers could lead to lasting flexibilities for physicians — if a few bad apples don’t spoil the bunch

On October 19, 2020, the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) highlighted recent actions taken by the federal government

On March 24, 2020, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a joint statement on COVID-19-related antitrust enforcement highlighting ways “firms, including competitors, can engage in procompetitive collaboration that does not violate the antitrust laws” to protect public health and safety. The DOJ and FTC emphasized their commitment to facilitating antitrust compliance for businesses that are responding to the national emergency. In furtherance of this position, the agencies gave examples of collaborative activities designed to improve health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic that are unlikely to run afoul of the antitrust laws, absent exceptions. These include:

  • Collaboration on research and development as “efficiency-enhancing integration of economic activity” which is typically procompetitive.
  • Sharing technical know-how – rather than company specific data about prices, wages, outputs, or costs – as necessary to achieve procompetitive benefits of collaboration.
  • The “development of suggested practice parameters – standards for patient management developed to assist providers in clinical decisionmaking” by providers will not be challenged except in extraordinary circumstances.
  • Joint purchasing arrangements among health care providers “designed to increase the efficiency of procurement and reduce transaction costs.”
  • “[P]rivate lobbying addressed to the use of federal emergency authority, including private industry meetings with the federal government to discuss strategies on responding to COVID-19, insofar as those activities comprise mere solicitation of governmental action with respect to the passage and enforcement of laws.”

Continue Reading DOJ and FTC Issue Joint Statement on Antitrust Enforcement and the COVID-19 Pandemic

On January 27, 2020, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a $145 million settlement with Practice Fusion Inc., an electronic health records (EHR) software company that resolves parallel criminal and civil investigations involving allegations of kickbacks, false claims, and non-compliance with federal EHR program requirements. We previously discussed a preliminary settlement in this case here, and in announcing the finalizing of that settlement the DOJ has shed more light on the allegedly improper conduct at issue. According to the DOJ, this is the first criminal action ever brought against an EHR company, and the “unique” deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) imposed by the DOJ against Practice Fusion that seeks “to ensure acceptance of responsibility and transparency as to” underlying conduct may reflect a new approach to settlements with corporate health care defendants.
Continue Reading DOJ Announces Settlement with EHR Company to Resolve Criminal and Civil Kickback Investigations Tied to Opioid Prescribing