Harold Persaud, MD, the cardiologist who received a 20-year sentenceΠthis month for performing unnecessary procedures as part of a scheme to overbill Medicare and private insurers is claiming the Affordable Care Act is responsible for his conviction. Dr. Persaud was convicted of one count of healthcare fraud, 13 counts of making false statements and...

Aria Health has agreed to pay $3 million to the federal government after the Philadelphia-based health system self-disclosed it violated the False Claims Act and Stark Law, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Aria agreed to pay $564,700 to settle claims a cardiologist performed unnecessary invasive procedures on inpatients and outpatients between Oct. 1,...

The Catholic priest was one of the key whistleblowers in the Redding Medical Center heart surgery scandal -- the first to allege unnecessary heart procedures including heart catheterizations by the Chief cardiologist The Rev. John Corapi received a heart catheterization in 2002 along with other tests from...

Thirty-two hospitals have agreed to pay the United States a total of more than $28 million to settle allegations that the health care facilities submitted false claims to Medicare for minimally-invasive kyphoplasty procedures, the Justice Department announced today. The Justice Department has now reached settlements with more than 130 hospitals totaling approximately $105 million...

The owner of two mental health companies providing inpatient and outpatient mental health services to juveniles was indicted yesterday for engaging in a scheme to bribe a former deputy director of the Arkansas Department of Human Services (ADHS), announced Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Department of Justice's Criminal Division. A federal grand...

Tommie Copper Inc., was charged with false and deceptive advertising Πby the Federal Trade Commission and will pay $1.35 million payment this month to settle that claim. That will not resolve a federal class action lawsuit brought by four Tommie Copper customers who said they were duped into buying the products for their...

Pharmaceutical company Warner Chilcott agreed to plead guilty to health care fraud and pay $125 million to resolve criminal and civil liability arising from the illegal promotion of the drugs Actonel, Asacol, Atelvia, Doryx, Enablex, Estrace, and Loestrin, and various formulations of these drugs.

Millennium Health, formerly Millennium Laboratories, has agreed to pay $256 million to resolve alleged violations of the False Claims Act for billing Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health care programs for medically unnecessary urine drug and genetic testing and for providing free items to physicians who agreed to refer...

A former Adventist Health Systems executive and three former employees filed a lawsuit against the Adventist Health System over doctor referrals and the whistleblower case was settled today by the Department of Justice for payment by Adventist of $118,751,080. The case alleged violations of the "Stark Statute" restricting financial relationships that hospitals have with...