New York Paralegal Blog

WASHINGTON – CVS Pharmacy Inc., the retail pharmacy division of CVS Caremark Corporation that operates more than 7,000 retail pharmacies in 41 states and the District of Columbia, has agreed to pay the United States and 10 states $17.5 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations, the Justice Department announced on 4/15/2011. The settlement resolves allegations that CVS submitted inflated prescription claims to the government by billing the Medicaid programs in Alabama, California, Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Nevada and Rhode Island for more than what CVS was owed for prescription drugs dispensed to Medicaid beneficiaries who were also eligible for benefits under a primary third party insurance plan (excluding Medicare as the primary payor). The United States alleged that rather than billing the government for what the insured would have been obligated to pay had the claims been submitted solely to the third party insurer (typically the...

WASHINGTON - L-3 Vertex Aerospace, a subsidiary of L-3 Communications Corp., has paid the U.S. $4 million to settle allegations that the company submitted false and inflated claims to the Army for hours worked by the firm’s employees on a contract supporting military operations by the United States in Iraq, the Justice Department announced today. L-3 Vertex Aerospace, based in Madison, Miss., has an ongoing contract with the U.S. Army to provide helicopter maintenance services at Camp Taji, Iraq. The settlement announced today resolves allegations that L-3 submitted false time records and inflated claims for hours worked by company employees at Camp Taji, during periods from March 2004 through August 2005. More...

WASHINGTON -- Medical transcription service provider MedQuist Inc. has paid the United States $6.6 million to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act that it overbilled federal government clients, the Justice Department announced today. From 1998 onward, MedQuist provided medical transcription services to several federal government clients, including the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Public Health Service (PHS), part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The government alleged that, from approximately 1998 through 2004, the Mount Laurel, N.J., company knowingly overbilled VA, DOD and PHS for medical transcription services. Certain federal contracts called for MedQuist to bill according to a transcription industry billing standard called the "AAMT line." Other contracts at issue imposed slightly different billing standards. More...

WASHINGTON & NEWARK, N.J. – BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee (BCBS-T) has agreed to pay the United States $2.1 million to settle allegations of violating the False Claims Act, the Justice Department announced today. BCBS-T, which is headquartered in Chattanooga, Tenn., operates as Riverbend Government Benefit Administrators. The settlement resolves allegations that BCBS-T, while the primary Medicare Part A Fiscal Intermediary for the state of New Jersey, failed to adjust the cost-to-charge ratios for many New Jersey hospitals in a timely manner between 2000 and 2002 that resulted in the payment of excessive "outlier payments" by Medicare program to those medical facilities. A Part A Fiscal Intermediary is a private insurance company that processes and pays Medicare claims. In addition to its standard payment system, Medicare provides supplemental reimbursement, called outlier payments, to hospitals in cases where the cost of care is unusually high. Congress enacted the s...