A $12 million settlement was reached in a False Claims Act case alleging kickbacks to physicians for using Sightpath Medical Products in eye surgeries. The relator, Kipp Fesenmaier, was vice president of the company and reported that kickbacks were being offered to physicians to bribe them to use Sightpath Medical products. These kickbacks came in the form of sham consulting agreements and free entertainment – including hunting, fishing, and skiing trips. Halunen Law was proud to work with lead counsel from Morgan Verkamp LLC in this case. Susan Coler, head of Halunen Law’s Whistleblower/Qui Tam practice group, stated, “It’s great to see a result like this, where an employee’s report of illegal conduct caused significant corporate change and helped protect the integrity of medical decision making.
News
Has a potential client come to you who is talking about fraud involving a contract or program that receives government funding? That person just might have a strong suit for filling a qui tam case. To give you an idea of what we are talking about consider just a few of the following examples of frauds that have been uncovered; keep in mind that the list goes on and on.
- Billing for goods and services that never existed
- Upcoding either for false illnesses or treatments or for employee work by charging higher doctors rates
- Defective testing saying something passed a test when it failed
- Failure to report known product defects while still billing the government for the product
The False Claims Act is an important federal law that combats fraud against the Government, but many people have never heard of it. This vital act allows individuals with evidence of fraud to sue companies on behalf of the government for damages.
With all of the news surrounding the fate of the Affordable Care Act lately, you may have missed that the government intervened in two lawsuits alleging fraud against the country’s largest health insurance company, Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth Group. Since the beginning of this year, the Department of Justice joined two separate False Claims Act cases against UnitedHealth. Both qui tam lawsuits (the Latin phrase commonly used for False Claims Act cases brought by a whistleblower) allege that UnitedHealth fraudulently inflated its Medicare Advantage risk adjustment scores.
So, what is the Medicare Advantage program? What are risk adjustment scores? And how can a major health insurance company, like UnitedHealth, defraud the government? The answers to each of these questions can be found in this post.
Halunen Law staff member Emily Havrilak is a woman with Turner syndrome (TS) and President-elect of the Turner Syndrome Society of the United States (TSSUS). TS is a chromosome abnormality found in about 1 in every 2,000 females that affects physical growth and development. Earlier this month she had the privilege of representing her organization at a meeting of the International Coalition of Organizations Supporting Endocrine Patients (ICOSEP) in Frankfurt, Germany. Leaders of various groups from 12 countries came together to discuss the importance of monitoring children’s growth and related medical issues. For more information, visit www.turnersyndrome.org and www.icosep.org or email Emily at [email protected].
Article by Halunen Attorney Stephen Premo published in Bench & Bar Text: New whistleblower protections were added to the Minnesota Whistleblower Act in 2013. Halunen Law Employment Attorney Stephen Premo analyzes efforts to gut the effectiveness of the new law and upcoming review of those efforts by the Minnesota Supreme Court.
Source: http://mnbenchbar.com/2017/01/reanimating-dead-law/
Stephen Premo
Halunen Law attorney Stephen Premo represents employees who have been treated unfairly by their employer, focusing on matters involving discrimination and retaliation. He understands that besides being an effective advocate, a great litigator must also be a good counselor. Most clients have never been involved in any sort of legal process, which can be confusing, intimidating, and emotionally draining. Taking the time to demystify each stage of the litigation, Stephen helps clients feel informed, empowered, and at ease.
Learn more about Stephen
MINNEAPOLIS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Halunen Law (www.halunenlaw.com) has initiated an investigation into MiMedx Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: MDXG) (“MiMedx” or the “Company”) regarding whether the Company’s board breached its fiduciary duties to shareholders or engaged in other violations of state or federal law.
On Dec. 15, 2016, Halunen Law filed a complaint on behalf of two employee whistleblowers against MiMedx and its Chief Executive Officer, Parker Petit, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota (No. 16-cv-4171). The complaint alleges that MiMedx and its senior executives have engaged in the illegal practice of booking phantom sales of one of the company’s most lucrative product lines, EpiFix, for the purposes of artificially inflating revenue and deceiving MiMedx’s shareholders. While developing the factual background for this whistleblower lawsuit, Halunen Law uncovered what it believes to be evidence of securities fraud by MiMedx since at least 2014. As alleged in Halunen Law’s whistleblower complaint, “CEO Parker ‘Pete’ Petit ordered the MiMedx sales force to submit false orders for unpurchased product for the purpose of recognizing the ‘revenue’ in the company’s financial statements.”
Access the original amended complaint against MiMedx at: https://1drv.ms/f/s!Apr_gPRDSPDNgfww6C1lM2CNA3PfKg
Halunen Law is a national class action law firm with offices in Minneapolis and Chicago. For more information on Halunen Law, visit the firm’s website at www.halunenlaw.com.
Contacts at Halunen Law
If you are a MiMedx shareholder and are concerned about your rights, or if you possess information that would assist Halunen Law in its investigation of this matter, please contact:
Chris J. Moreland
612-638-5019
[email protected]
Halunen partner and whistleblower/False Claims Act attorney Susan Coler recently spoke at the National Employment Lawyers Association 2016 Annual Conference in Los Angeles. Her topic was proving discrimination and retaliation when there is no “smoking gun” — that is, when there is no direct evidence of illegal conduct.
She noted that the law allows juries to infer retaliation and discrimination from many different kinds of conduct. This includes, for example, evidence that an employer engaged in a sham investigation, did not follow its policies, fabricated or exaggerated the reasons given for termination, or treated the plaintiff differently than other employees. The panel on which she spoke included Professor Michael Foreman from Penn State Law and New Jersey attorney Patricia Barasch.
Discover more about Susan Coler.
Halunen Law was recently featured in an article, publish in Bloomberg Businessweek, Fortune, and Money that recognizes them for some of their outstanding work concerning different whistleblower retaliation and government fraud cases. Read the full article: Righting Corporate Wrongs: One Law Firm’s Fight for Justice
The whistleblower case filed on behalf of Paul Olson, a high level employee of Minnesota’s Department of Human Services (DHS) has settled for $295,000. Olson had alleged that the DHS had ostracized him and removed all meaningful responsibilities from his position after he refused his managers’ demands to violate a statute to give a financial benefit to Fairview University Medical Center. The terms of the settlement include compensation for wage damages and emotional distress. View the Olson v. DHS Settlement Agreement.
Weber was fired after bringing evidence to members of the executive leadership at Globe about illegal and deceptive claims being made by the school in its student recruitment advertising materials.
A Minnesota district court judge ruled that the for-profit Globe University must pay more than $500,000 in attorneys’ fees and related costs to Heidi Weber and her legal team, who brought a successful whistleblower lawsuit against the school.
Add in the $395,000 in damages awarded Weber by the jury when the case went to trial August 2013, plus additional pre-judgment interest charges in excess of $70,000, and the total amount due Weber and her law firm, Halunen Law, from Globe University now approaches $1 million.