CHARLOTTE, NC, December 19, 2017 – The United States Department of Justice today announced that EMCARE will pay more than $30 million ($29.8 million plus accruing interest) to the Federal Government and six states to settle a whistleblower lawsuit filed by Drs. Mason and Folstad, and their practice, Mid-Atlantic Emergency Medical Associates, PA (“MEMA”). EMCARE was… Read more »
Marc Stephen Raspanti will present, “Your Company Has Been Served With a Civil Investigative Demand: Now What,” at the Healthcare Enforcement Compliance Institute’s 3rd Annual Conference.
Marc Stephen Raspanti will be speaking at the Fraud and Compliance Forum. His topic for presentation is on Medical Necessity and The False Claims Act. His co-presenters include John-David H. Thomas, J. Reginald Hill, and Jessica Sievert. The name of the presentation is titled, “Medical Necessity and the False Claims Act – Lions and Tigers and… Read more »
The Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM) industry is the Goliath of healthcare. PBMs have a huge impact on prescription healthcare that is little understood outside of the pharmacy industry. According to a November 2016 report, PBMs in the United States have revenues of $423 billion, they experienced 11-16% growth between 2011 and 2016, and they employ… Read more »
A recent news article in the New York Times, “The Bounty Hunter of Wall Street,” featured Andrew Left, an “activist” short seller who receives leaked documents and other intelligence about publicly-traded companies from confidential sources. Armed with this information, short sellers leak negative information to the press. When the information negatively impacts the target company’s… Read more »
PHILADELPHIA, PA — Allergan, Inc., has agreed to pay $13 million to the United States and 19 States to resolve a whistleblower lawsuit alleging it engaged in a kickback scheme in violation of multiple federal and state laws. The suit, filed and litigated by the Philadelphia law firm Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick & Raspanti and Chicago… Read more »
CMS estimated improper payments to Medicare Advantage Organizations (MAOs) to be 9.5 percent or $14.1 billion based on a national audit that reviewed 2013 payments. Of those improper payments, CMS estimated that 73 percent were the result of insufficient medical documentation submitted to support the diagnoses the MAOs submitted, according to an April 2016 Government… Read more »
Marc Stephen Raspanti and Pamela Coyle Brecht will speak at the “Current Trends in False Claims Act/Qui Tam Whistleblower Litigation,” CLE presented by the SC Bar CLE Division, SC Federal Bar Association Qui Tam Section, and the Charleston School of Law. Marc will discuss, “Ten Practice Tips for Relators- Doing Your Best to File a Winning Qui Tam… Read more »
As we head into the second quarter of an already turbulent 2017, it is worth reflecting on the truly extraordinary events of 2016. Of course, there was the hotly-contested, historic election in November, which may usher in sweeping changes to our nation’s healthcare system. Although the potential impact of these future changes remains to be… Read more »
When Congress discovered that Great Depression-era employers were scheming to circumvent wage provisions in federal contracts, it enacted the first anti-kickback law, the Copeland Act, in 1931. The statute, which is still good law, prohibits federal building contractors and subcontractors from inducing their workers to “kick back” or return any part of the compensation to… Read more »