Dec 15, 2020 | Health Care, Medicare and Medicaid
On Thursday, December 10, 2020, the Department of Justice issued a press release regarding the sentencing of a Texas clinic owner and employee to 20 years and 8 years in prison, respectively, for their roles in a pill mill scheme. The clinic owner, Baker Niazi, pled...
Dec 1, 2020 | Health Care
On November 24, 2020, Purdue Pharma LP pleaded guilty to allegations that it conspired to defraud the government and violate the anti-kickback statute. Purdue pleaded guilty to three felony charges: one count of dual-object conspiracy to defraud the United States and...
Dec 1, 2020 | Health Care, Medicare and Medicaid
On November 20, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a draft of its final rule regarding Medicare’s physician self-referral law, colloquially known as the Stark Law. On the same day, CMS also issued a press release and fact sheet...
Nov 2, 2020 | Fraud Investigations, Government Investigations, Health Care
Over the last few years, state and federal law enforcement agencies have brought a number of criminal and civil actions to hold pharmaceutical companies accountable for the opioid crisis. The latest milestone in the pursuit of accountability is a DOJ settlement with...
Oct 27, 2020 | Government Investigations, Health Care, White Collar Crime
Earlier this year, a jury found Sylvia Hofstetter guilty of a Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization (“RICO”) conspiracy, two counts of drug conspiracy, money laundering, and maintaining a drug-involved premise for her role in operating pill mills in Florida and...
Oct 20, 2020 | Government Investigations, Health Care, White Collar Crime
The False Claims Act has long been considered one of the Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) most powerful tools for preventing wrongdoing in the healthcare industry. However, the DOJ’s Antitrust Division has been actively investigating anti-competitive behavior in the...