Fraud and Abuse

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Gov. Christie’s Administration recently proposed a regulation to curtail the prescription of unnecessary opioid painkillers.  Christie, who serves as the Chairman of President Trump’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, expressed concern that treatment decisions of all prescribers (including physicians, dentists and advanced practice nurses) are being improperly influenced by pharmaceutical companies. …

Earlier this month, a New York man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly operating a $26 million scheme to defraud Medicare and Medicaid. The defendant allegedly established 6 medical clinics in Brooklyn that paid elderly people to pose as patients and billed Medicare and Medicaid for unnecessary and/or non-existent medical care and…

Advancements in healthcare technology continue at an explosive pace and nowhere is this more evident than in the field of mobile healthcare applications. Technology giants such as Apple and Garmin are diving into the wearable healthcare device arena and healthcare app companies are rapidly developing technology to enable devices to transmit healthcare information directly to…

Earlier this month, the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services (“OIG”), the agency charged with enforcement of key federal fraud and abuse laws, published its annual Work Plan identifying the areas of compliance concern under the Medicare program on which it will focus its review efforts in the coming…

The Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) of the Department of Health and Human Services, generally, would have concerns about a potential or existing referral source receiving free goods or services, since these free goods and services could be used to provide unlawful payments for the referral of Federal health care program business.  However, under Advisory …

In March 2016, we covered the conviction of Dr. Venkateswara Kuchipudi for violating the federal anti-kickback statute by referring nursing home patients to Sacred Heart Hospital (in Chicago) in exchange for kickbacks. For a summary of the case, please see our post here: Nursing Home Fraud Scam Results in Conviction for King of Nursing Homes…

Long gone are the days when drug reps enticed physicians with extravagant meals at five-star restaurants and box seats to the Phillies’ playoffs (and sadly, gone are the days when the Phillies actually made the playoffs).

According to a recent study published in the journal, JAMA Internal Medicine, physicians who are provided a meal…

In a recent Advisory Opinion (No. 16-02), the OIG concluded that it would not seek sanctions against a state-run hospital (the “Hospital”) under the federal anti-kickback statute or the civil monetary penalty law for two arrangements under which the Hospital provides transportation aid and short-term lodging to pregnant women covered by federal health care programs.  …

Called by some the “King of Nursing Homes” for his many low-income nursing home patients in northeast Illinois, Dr. Venkateswara Kuchipudi was recently convicted for referring patients to Sacred Heart Hospital in Chicago in exchange for kickbacks.  Kuchipudi became the fifth physician and tenth defendant to be convicted for a massive Medicare and Medicaid fraud…