DaVita Kidney Care has agreed to pay $450 million to settle a False Claims Act case alleging that the dialysis center overbilled the government for drugs.  According to the whistleblower, DaVita billed the government for Zemplar, Venofer, and Epogen in ways that maximized the amount of wasted product reimbursed by the government.  For certain products, Medicare will pay for “unavoidable wastage”–the amount left in a vial after giving the patient their recommended dose.  DaVita allegedly structured patient doses to maximize the amount wasted–and therefore maximize the amount that the government paid for each administration.

The settlement is the largest in a False Claims Act case that the government has not joined.  As the number of False Claims Act cases filed increases and the government is forced to do more with less, DaVita may represent a growing trend of successful cases in which the government decided to leverage its resources by entrusting litigation of FCA cases to whistleblowers and their counsel.

Read the entire article, “DaVita will pay $495 million to settle Atlanta whistle-blower case”