ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER The IRS Whistleblower Reward Increased in Fiscal 2016 The IRS announced that rewards paid to whistleblowers from October 1st, 2015 to September 30, 2016 will have a 6.8 percent deduction. There is a similar deduction from the award every year, typically taken to pay outstanding government debts, and […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER Healthcare fraud is often a fairly technical area of law: large companies misusing funds, fraudulently billing Medicare or Medi-Cal, or improperly treating patients not in need of expensive procedures. Cases often revolve around class disputes, the finer points of qui tam law and the false claims act, or […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER Medicare and Medicaid programs differ in the way that they pay for nursing home care. It is important for nursing home residents and their loved ones to understand the coverage they have under their particular program. Medicare coverage functions like a health insurance policy, with either the beneficiary […]

Why Protecting Whistleblowers Pays Dividends ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER At a time when businesses and governments seem more eager than ever to cover up their wrongdoings, it’s worth asking what benefit there is in strong whistleblower protections. The benefit to the whistleblower is obvious: these protections enable them to act on their […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER Thanks to whistleblower George Karadsheh, a doctor who was improperly giving patients chemotherapy was stopped. Dr. Farid Fata, a Michigan doctor, was recently sentenced to 45 years in jail. According to prosecutors, Fata mistreated over 500 patients. In some cases, he was administering chemotherapy to people who did […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER This year is the 50th anniversary of the Medicare program, and caregivers often find navigating Medicare and Medicaid to be one of the most difficult parts of managing a loved one’s finances and healthcare. San Francisco elder abuse attorneys emphasize that caregivers should know the basics and major […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER Fraud investigation and enforcement activity against healthcare providers has been increasing, as the government uses the False Claims Act to pursue whistleblowers’ claims of fraud and abuse. This has been particularly evident with long-term care providers. The False Claims Act, sometimes referred to as the Lincoln Law, was […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER Nursing home network Hebrew Homes agreed to pay $17 million to settle a False Claims Act suit brought by their former CFO. According to the CFO, Hebrew Homes allegedly violated the Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits the exchange (or offer to exchange), of anything of value, in an effort […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER In her book, Confessions of an RX Drug Pusher, former pharmaceutical sales representative Gwen Olsen is exposing Big Pharma. Olsen says that there is no such thing as a safe drug, and that she and other sales representatives were trained to misinform people, statements that are seemingly supported […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER DaVita HealthCare Partners, a Denver-based company, has agreed to pay up to $495 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit accusing the company of defrauding the federal Medicare program. This is the third settlement of a whistleblower lawsuit by DaVita since 2012. Dr. Alon J. Vainer and nurse Daniel […]