Medical prescription

A settlement has been reached in two whistleblower class action lawsuits brought against Kos Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Abbott Laboratories, who is accused of paying illegal kickbacks to doctors, other medical professionals, physician groups and managed care organizations to get them to prescribe or recommend Niaspan and Advicor.

According to the agreement reached with the government, the Delaware-based company will pay more than $38 million to settle civil allegations under the False Claims Act and a $3.36 million criminal fine. The federal share of the civil settlement is $33,705,310 and the state Medicaid share is $4,454,432.The whistleblowers will receive payments totaling more than $6.4 million from the federal share of the civil recovery. 

The first of the two cases was filed in March 2004 and alleged that between January 2002 and June 2006, two doctors proposed that they would endorse the use of Kos products, including Advicor, for the treatment of cholesterol in exchange for a series of payments. During that time, one of the doctors wrote 4,130 prescriptions for Kos products. According to the court documents, some of those prescriptions were paid for by Medicare and Medicaid. From 2002 to 2004, Kos made a series of payments to the two doctors or a third party intermediary in the form of “sponsorship” of continuing medical education classes conducted by the doctors and purported speakers’ fees. 

If you have a similar case please fill out the form below or email mail@whistleonfraud.com or call: 619 - 866 – 6157

OR

If you or someone you know experienced a similar situation or any other wrongdoing within a corporation you should contact mail@whistleonfraud.com or call: 619 - 866 – 6157

A settlement has been reached in a whistleblower class action lawsuit brought against CVS Pharmacy Inc  who is accused of submitting inflated prescription claims to the government.

Under the terms of the agreement with the United States and the 10 states, CVS will pay the United States $7,993,615.55 and the states $9,506,384.45 plus interest. The whistleblower will receive a total of $2,595,460: $1,278,978 of the United States’ recovery and $1,316,482 of the state proceeds from California, Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevada and Rhode Island. Alabama and Minnesota do not have state False Claims Act statutes.

Originally filed in September 2008, the United States alleged CVS submitted inflated prescription claims to the government by billing the Medicaid programs in Alabama, California, Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Nevada and Rhode Island for more than what CVS was owed for prescription drugs dispensed to Medicaid beneficiaries who were also eligible for benefits under a primary third party insurance plan (excluding Medicare as the primary payor). The United States also alleged that rather than billing the government for what the insured would have been obligated to pay had the claims been submitted solely to the third party insurer (typically the co-pay), CVS billed and was paid a higher amount by Medicaid.

A settlement has been reached in a whistleblower class action lawsuit brought against Cardinal Health Inc who is accused of making payments to induce referral orders for its prescription drugs.

The whistleblowers will share in a $760,000 settlement recovery.

The whistleblower initially filed the case November 2008.  He brought to light that Cardinal paid him $440,000 in exchange for an agreement that he purchase from Cardinal prescription drugs for his pharmacies.