Litigation

West Coast Dental Administrative Services LLC, which operates more than 40 dental and specialist locations in Southern California, and its affiliates have paid $6.3 million to resolve alleged violations of the False Claims Act (FCA). The alleged violations were in connection with loans received by the affiliated offices pursuant to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).…

The Office of the New York State Attorney General announced on August 13 that Letitia James, along with the Attorneys General of Connecticut and New Jersey, fined Enzo Biochem, Inc. $4.5 million for failing to adequately safeguard its patients’ health data.

Enzo conducts drug research and development, and provides diagnostic services. In 2023, hackers accessed…

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently announced that it ordered American Medical Response (AMR) to pay a civil monetary penalty of $115,200 for failing to comply with the patient right of access rule under HIPAA.

HIPAA requires that all covered entities provide timely access to a patient’s…

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut recently announced that Supportive Care Holdings, LLC and its related companies agreed to pay the federal government nearly $4,600,000 to resolve allegations of submitting false claims. The Supportive Care companies provide behavioral health services via telehealth to patients residing in skilled nursing facilities.

Supportive Care’s companies…

The prohibition on fee splitting by professionals is alive and well in New York. The sale of a dental practice from one dentist to another was found to violate the state’s prohibition against fee splitting because the purchase price was to be paid, in part, based on a percentage of the future revenue of the practice. …

The U.S. Department of Justice announced on July 24 that Admera Health LLC, a New Jersey-based biopharmaceutical research and clinical laboratory testing company, agreed to pay $5,389,648 to resolve kickback allegations brought by two whistleblowers under the False Claims Act (FCA).

Admera provides biopharmaceutical research services for healthcare institutions and provided clinical laboratory testing services…

On July 1, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced that Heritage Valley Health System, a provider in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, agreed to pay $950,000 to resolve potential violations of the HIPAA Security Rule. Heritage Valley’s alleged violations included failure to conduct a risk analysis to…

On June 27, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the results of a two-week nationwide law enforcement action by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in 32 federal districts against 193 defendants for their participation in a variety of healthcare fraud schemes. These federal enforcement actions also included the seizure of more than $230 million in…

On May 16, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced that Cape Cod Hospital agreed to pay $24.3 million to resolve alleged violations of the federal False Claims Act (FCA) for knowingly failing to follow Medicare’s requirements for certain procedures performed.

Beginning in 2015, the hospital offered transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR)…

Manishkumar Patel of Pelham Manor, NY recently pleaded guilty in connection with a healthcare fraud and kickback scheme involving the sale of fraudulent prescriptions to pharmacies, durable medical equipment suppliers, and laboratories, which then obtained payments from Medicare. The scheme resulted in $50 million in fraudulent claims from 2019-22.

Patel and a co-conspirator worked with…