Individual liability continues to be at the forefront of criminal investigations and the litigation that often follows. Throughout the past five years, the U.S. Department of Justice’s edicts on individual culpability have varied in tone and rigidity, but the underlying focus on individuals has remained constant. On Sept. 9, 2015, former Deputy Attorney General Sally… Read more »
Pietragallo partner Michael A. Morse will be presenting at the Pennsylvania Bar Institute’s (“PBI”) Health Law Institute on March 11-12, 2020. Mr. Morse’s session topic is, “Preparing for the Fight of Your Life: Anatomy of a Health Care Fraud Prosecution.” The PBI notes that the Health Law Institute is, “The event of the year for… Read more »
The United States recently filed a False Claims Act Complaint in Intervention against Florida-based compounding pharmacy Patient Care America (“PCA”), two PCA employees, as well as the private equity (“PE”) firm that acquired PCA and helped manage the company.1 The scheme alleged by the government was a common one: the payment of kickbacks for referrals… Read more »
What Happened: As federal payors move away, with increasing speed, from fee-for-service payments toward value-based payment reforms, CMS and HHS-OIG released, on October 9, 2019, proposed Stark Law Exceptions and Anti-Kickback Statute Safe Harbors to better permit health care providers to engage in coordinated care reimbursed by these value-based payments. The proposed Rules remove “potential… Read more »
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (USAO E.D. Pa.) announced today that Dr. Glenn Kline, DO, a Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based general surgeon, together with his company, Community Surgical Associates, will pay $4.25 million, with interest, plus the whistleblowers’ attorney’s fees, to settle a longstanding Qui Tam lawsuit filed under the federal… Read more »
Pamela Coyle Brecht will be presenting at the Health Care Compliance Association’s 24th Annual Compliance Institute in Nashville, Tennessee on March 30, 2020. The title of Ms. Brecht’s presentation is, “Healthcare Private Equity, Moving Into the Government’s Crosshairs.” Private equity (PE), through mergers and acquisitions, has moved into the healthcare space in a very big… Read more »
Join Pietragallo Partner Michael A. Morse for a web conference on Wednesday, October 23 at 1:00 pm EST. Hosted by the Health Care Compliance Association, Mr. Morse will discuss: The Supreme Court’s latest FCA decision, which delivered two important victories for whistleblowers The Supreme Court’s active interest in the shaping False Claims Act litigation How… Read more »
Yesterday, the Third Circuit affirmed a doctor’s conviction for accepting bribes in exchange for referrals to New Jersey based lab Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services (BLS). U.S. v. Thomas V. Savino, No. 18-2223 (3d Cir. 2019). Doctor Thomas Savino allowed BLS to set up a blood drawing station in his solo medical practice in Staten Island, New… Read more »
On September 18, 2019, the Department of Justice announced a $21.35 million settlement with compounding pharmacy Patient Care America, PCA executives Patrick Smith and Matthew Smith, and, most notably, the pharmacy’s private equity backer, Riordan, Lewis & Haden Inc. The private equity firm and the pharmacy will fund substantially all of the settlement ($21.036 million). … Read more »
Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick & Raspanti, LLP is pleased to announce that Pamela Coyle Brecht, the Chair of the Firm’s Qui Tam Practice Group, has been selected by the Philadelphia Business Journal as a Recipient of the 2019 Best of the Bar Awards. The awards identify Philadelphia’s top lawyers across nine categories, including white-collar defense… Read more »