Category Archives: Whistleblower News

06/06/11 – A Washington federal court ruled that the statute of limitations for bringing a federal False Claims Act against Washington D.C. is three years.  While in 2010 Congress decided on a three-year deadline for bringing a Federal False Claim, an earlier version of the Act did not have a timeframe.  The case in question was brought in 2002.  The court noted that in the absence of a statute of limitation in the federal law, courts borrowed from the most appropriate state law, which in this case was the D.C. False Claims Act.    

Read more:  http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2011/06/judge-affirms-3-year-limit-for-federal-false-claims-acts-against-dc-.html

06/01/11 –  In a period of intense activity, as Inspector General Daniel R. Levinson calls it, the Office of Inspector General (OIG), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it expects to recover $3.4 billion.  The receivables, which are related to investigations, audits, and other reviews (mainly of Medicare and Medicaid) during the period October 2010 through March 2011, consist of $3.2 billion from 349 criminal and 179 civil actions and about $222 million from audits.  These numbers include settlements by two major drug companies for false claims, marketing, and other alleged violations.  GlaxoSmithKline LLC agreed to pay $750 million to resolve charges while Allergan, Inc. agreed to pay $600 million.

Read more:  http://oig.hhs.gov/newsroom/news-releases/2011/sar_release.asp

5-23-11 –  For over 150 years, when a company lies about its product being patented, a consumer can sue them and share the fine that the court imposes for lying to the government.  In other words, patent law has been allowing for qui tam law suits.  A small part of the pending patent reform bill, “America Invents Act of 2011”, eliminates the right of consumers to go after lying corporations, thus disallowing a powerful tool of the people – the qui tam suit.  The anti-false marking law in this Act would only allow false marking lawsuits filed by the US government or by a competitor who can prove competitive injury.

Read more:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-b-ravicher/companies-that-lie-to-the_1_b_865737.html

5-19-11 – California Attorney Genera, Kamala D. Harris, announced a $241 million settlement with Quest Diagnostics, which is the state’s largest medical lab test provider.  The settlement, which represents the largest recovery in the history of California’s False Claims Act, results from a 2005 whistleblower lawsuit alleging that Quest Diagnostics fraudulently overcharged the state’s Medi-Cal program for over 15 years and gave illegal kickbacks in the form of discounted or free testing to doctors, hospitals and clinics that referred Medi-Cal patients.  Medi-Cal is the Medicaid program in the State of California.  $171 million, from the settlement, will go to the state – a number that will encourage many states to be receptive to FCA lawsuits.

Read more:  http://salem-news.com/articles/may192011/quest-diagnostics.php

5-18-11 – The Supreme Court recently held, in Schindler Elevator Corp. vs. U.S., that private citizens cannot file qui tam lawsuits that rely upon information obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).  The majority opinion reasoned that the suit, which was based on information from the Department of Labor (through the FOIA request), was precluded under the public disclosure bar of the False Claims Act, which prohibits bring suits based on public information unless the person bringing the action is an original source of the information.  The goal of such a bar is to prevent people from just submitting FOIA requests on many agencies to see who is out of compliance and then file a qui tam action under the FCA.  Justice Ginsburg, dissenting, argued that the suit was based on relator’s observations and experience, and that the FOIA request should not be considered an administrative action prohibited under the FCA.

Read more:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/project-on-government-oversight/supreme-court-makes-it-ha_b_863344.html?