On May 6, the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina entered final judgment dismissing with prejudice a relator’s qui tam False Claims Act (FCA) suit against the defendant wholesale pharmacy. The relator, a former pharmacist who worked for the defendant, alleged that the defendant submitted false claims to government healthcare programs in connection with prescription medications dispensed for use at nursing homes and assisted living facilities. The relator alleged a scheme in which the defendant manually filled “thousands” of prescriptions with less-expensive generic medications while billing for more-expensive alternative medications stocked in its automated dispensing system.
A qui tam complaint containing similar allegations filed against Omnicare Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey resulted in an $8 million settlement in 2017. In this lawsuit, however, the defendant, represented by Bass, Berry & Sims and others, obtained full dismissal with prejudice of the relator’s FCA and retaliation claims.Continue Reading Qui Tam Complaint Against Pharmacy Dismissed for Lack of Particularity
Jeff Gibson co-authored an article for the American Bar Association (ABA) outlining some of the tools a company may use in response to a False Claims Act (FCA) investigation. Jeff co-authored the article with Greg Russo, managing director at Berkeley Research Group, for the ABA’s Health Law Section. As the authors point out, the government has been very successful in recent years in pursuing allegations against healthcare companies accused of submitting false claims under the FCA.