ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER
The Fraud of Medicare Kickback Schemes
Whistleblower Blows Whistle on Patient Assistance Program
Healthcare fraud is the single largest category of fraud against the government, primarily aimed at the government’s Medicare and Medicaid programs. Fraudulent schemes under these government programs include charging for services never rendered, false coding for drugs and services, tampering with eligibility rules, sales of unapproved or adulterated medications, and kickbacks. Whistleblowers help the government recover from this kind of fraud under the False Claims Act, which rewards whistleblowers for their efforts. The California whistleblower lawyers at Evans Law Firm, Inc. represent plaintiffs and whistleblowers in healthcare fraud and False Claims Act cases. We litigate false claims whistleblower cases in the California State courts and federal courts all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, currently handling one such case against one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. If you or a loved one has information regarding invalid or false claims under Medicare or Medicaid or any other government program, call the Evans Law Firm today at (415)441-8669 and we can help.
In one recently unsealed case,[1] a former employee has blown the whistle on a dialysis patient assistance program that created a “blocked” list of dialysis clinics whose patients would not receive financial assistance. Only patients who received services at clinics contributing to the charity that ran the assistance program were eligible for financial aid. The whistleblower alleges that this scheme constitutes an illegal kickback tactic. The charity maintains it has done nothing wrong. It remains to be seen what will happen in the case. The government has declined to intervene. But Representative Katie Porter, a California Democrat, recently requested that the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services, the federal agency that created the original guidelines for the charity, investigate the charity’s activities.
Kickback schemes in the healthcare industry are not uncommon. In April, five separate pharmaceutical companies paid a total of $247 million to the government for running kickback schemes disguised as patient assistance programs. Whistleblowers play a key role in revealing Medicare kickback schemes and all types of healthcare fraud against the government. Of the $2.8 billion in settlements and judgments recovered by the Department of Justice this past fiscal year, $2.5 billion involved the health care industry, including drug and medical device manufacturers, managed care providers, hospitals, pharmacies, hospice organizations, laboratories, and physicians. Whistleblowers received over $301 million in rewards for the same period in bringing fraud to light.
Contact Us
If you have information regarding Medicare or Medicaid fraud including under the Medicare Advantage program or any false claims against the government or tax avoidance schemes against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), contact Ingrid M. Evans and the other Evans Law Firm California whistleblower/qui tam attorneys at (415) 441-8669, or by email at <a href=”mailto:info@evanslaw.com”>info@evanslaw.com</a>. Our attorneys have experience with complex qui tam or whistleblower cases, offshore tax avoidance and securities fraud cases, complex financial contract cases and cases against large insurance companies. We can help guide your case through a jury trial or toward an equitable settlement. We also handle cases involving physical and financial elder abuse, nursing home abuse, whole life insurance and universal life insurance, and indexed, variable, and fixed annuities.
[1] Evans Law Firm, Inc. is not involved in the case in any way.
