Health Industry Washington Watch : Washington DC Healthcare Industry Law Firm : Reed Smith : Health Industry Washington Watch : Regulations, Medicare/Medicaid, Governmental Organizations

The Department of Justice recently announced that it secured a record $4.9 billion in settlements and judgments in civil fraud cases in FY 2012, including health care fraud recoveries totaling more than $3 billion. The Department notes that some of the largest recoveries during the year – representing nearly $2 billion -- involved false claims for drugs and medical devices under federally insured health programs (with an additional $745 million returned to state Medicaid programs). The Department also reports that in FY 2012, a record 647 qui tam/whistleblower suits were filed and a record $3.3 billion was recovered in such suits.

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This post was written by Matthew R. Sheldon and Alexander Y. Thomas.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals is reviewing a lower court decision disqualifying a former in-house attorney from acting as a False Claims Act qui tam relator against his former employer. The relator was formerly general counsel to Unilab, a subsidiary of Quest Diagnostics Inc. The qui tam suit alleged that Unilab violated the Federal Health Care Anti-Kickback Act by engaging in a fraudulent scheme to increase medical testing referrals under the Medicare and Medicaid programs. To read the full post on Reed Smith's Global Regulatory Enforcement Law Blog, click here.

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The Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced more than $3 billion in False Claims Act (FCA) recoveries in FY 2011, including $2.4 billion in recoveries involving federal health care program fraud. The pharmaceutical industry was the source of the largest recoveries -- the DOJ reports almost $2.2 billion in civil claims against the pharmaceutical industry in FY 2011. 

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This post was written by Paul W. Pitts, Susan A. Edwards, and Debra A. McCurdy.

Today the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its long-awaited final rule to implement the Medicare Shared Savings Program as authorized by Section 3022 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  The Shared Savings Program is intended to encourage physicians, hospitals, and certain other types of providers and suppliers to form accountable care organizations (ACOs) to provide cost-effective, coordinated care to Medicare beneficiaries.  Under the final rule, an ACO that meets established quality and performance standards and surpasses a minimum savings target will be able to share a percentage of savings (in addition to traditional fee-for-service payments under Medicare Parts A and B).  While the ACA requires CMS to "establish" the Shared Savings Program no later than January 1, 2012, CMS has indicated that it will begin accepting applications for the Shared Savings Program January 1, 2012, but the start date will be later in 2012. In the final rule, CMS made a number of notable changes to the proposed rule, as highlighted after the jump.

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This post was written by Debra H. Dermody, Gavin Eastgate, and Michelle Mantine.

On March 31, 2011, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a joint proposed Statement of Enforcement Policy to explain how the agencies...

View the full post by clicking here.

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