Vanguard has agreed to pay $2 million to resolve allegations that it engaged in fraudulent billing practices, including billing both Medicare and state Medicaid for services, billing for patients who no longer qualified for benefits by claiming that the patients had suffered a new episode, and billing for medical equipment it had received for free. …
CT Hospital Pays for Billing Men as Women
New Milford Hospital in Connecticut will pay almost $472,000 to resolve allegations that it overbilled Medicare by incorrectly billing injections of leuprolide acetate, commonly known as Lupron. Lupron is used to treat both prostate cancer in men and endometriosis and fibroids in women. Because the uses for women require higher doses than for the male…
Botox Maker Receives Civil Investigative Demand
According to the company’s recent regulatory filings, Allergan, the maker of Botox, received a Civil Investigative Demand in September from the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office. The civil investigative demand supposedly relates to its eye-care group. Read the entire article, “Allergan Says Massachusetts AG Wants Documents on Group”
GSK to Pay $3 Billion
Glaxo Smith Kline has agreed to pay $3 billion to resolve multiple claims against it. Among the allegations resolved by the settlement are its development and marketing of Avandia, a diabetes drug that has been linked to heart risks, improper marketing of Paxil and Wellbutrin between 1997 and 2004, and abusive Medicaid billing practices. In…
MF Global Stunted CFTC Regs that Would Have Protected Customer Funds?
MF Global, a financial firm run by Jon Corzine, has come under sharp criticism recently for its risky investing practices. MF Global may have invested customer money in sovereign debt overseas. As the company faces bankruptcy, regulators are now searching for over $630 million in missing customer money. The CFTC attempted to impose greater restrictions…
New York US Attorney Sues Allied Home Mortgage
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan has filed a case against Allied Home Mortgage Capital Corp., its founder and CEO, and its chief compliance officer for engaging in allegedly fraudulent mortgage lending practices. Although federal regulations require each branch to receive approval to issue HUD-insured loans, Allied allegedly issued such mortgages at locations that had…
NYC Agrees to Pay $70 Million
New York City will pay $70 million to the federal government for overbilling Medicaid for home care services that patients may not have actually needed. The city admitted that it re-authorized home care services for patients without first obtaining assessments from doctors, nurses, and social workers, and that it failed to obtain independent medical reviews…
CA Prescription Harvesting Scheme Busted
Sixteen individuals were arrested in Los Angeles Thursday for their roles in an alleged “prescription harvesting” conspiracy. A doctor at a Glendale clinic allegedly wrote prescriptions for anti-psychotic drugs for veterans, homeless people, and unknowing elderly patients in order to obtain and bill Medi-Cal and Medicare for those drugs. According to the criminal complaint, Huntington…
California Pension Funds, Massachusetts Sue BNY Mellon
A group of California pension funds have become the latest to sue BNY Mellon in relation to its foreign currency exchange rate practices. According to the complaint unsealed last week, BNY Mellon promised to provide these clients with the best rates of the day, but instead gave them the worst, resulting in profits for BNY…
DFine Agrees to Pay Almost $ 2.4 Million
DFine Inc., a device manufacturer, has agreed to pay $2.39 million to resolve allegations that, under the guise of a patient survey, it paid kickbacks to doctors who prescribed its devices. According to the complaint, DFine paid doctors up to $500 for each survey completed; however, surveys could only be filled out when the doctor…