Compliance & Legal
Pharmaceutical manufacturer Warner Chilcott will plead guilty and pay $125 million after admitting to paying kickbacks to doctors and other healthcare professionals so they would prescribe drugs Actonel, Asacol, Atelvia, Doryx, Enablex, Estrace, Loestrin and others, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.
Dike Ajiri, chief executive officer at Chicago-based Mobile Doctors, recently plead guilty to charges that he fraudulently billed Medicare for in home-treatments that were longer than they actually were.
Millennium Health of San Diego has agreed to pay $256 million to the federal government to resolve claims that it billed Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs for medically unnecessary urine drug and genetic testing, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Tuomey Healthcare System in South Carolina will pay the federal government $72.4 million and will affiliate with Palmetto Health to resolve claims it billed Medicare for services referred by physicians it illegally paid, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Advocate Health Care's South Suburban Hospital in Chicago will pay $10.4 million after a court ruled that negligence in administering blood pressure medication resulted in permanent disfigurement of a surgical patient.
The American Hospital Association is blasting a court ruling siding with the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America over the 340B Orphan Drug program, according to AHA Executive Vice President Tom Nickels.
Officials say Ubert Guillermo Rodriguez billed Medicare for $2.57 million in reimbursements between May and July 2013 for medical equipment that was never prescribed by a doctor and never delivered to patients.
The agencies claimed the rules threatened irreparable damage to businesses that provide in-home care for seniors and the disabled.
Last month Broward Health agreed to pay $70 million to settle allegations that it engaged in "improper financial relationships" with doctors under laws prohibiting kickbacks in return for patient referrals.
Guardian submitted false claims for hospice care for patients who did not have a terminal prognosis of six months or less, according to authorities.