Healthcare Fraud: Forest Laboratories LLC And Forest Pharmaceuticals Inc. Agreed to Pay For Violated the False Claims Act by Paying Kickbacks

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<h2>Forest Laboratories and Forest Pharmaceuticals to Pay &dollar;38 million to Resolve Kickback Allegations Under the False Claims Act<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Forest Laboratories LLC&comma; located in New York&comma; New York&comma; and its subsidiary&comma; Forest Pharmaceuticals Inc&period;&comma; have agreed to pay &dollar;38 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by paying kickbacks to induce physicians to prescribe the drugs Bystolic®&comma; Savella®&comma; and Namenda®&comma; the Department of Justice announced today&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Kickback schemes undermine the integrity of medical decisions and increase the costs of health care for everyone&comma;” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Benjamin C&period; Mizer&comma; head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Such schemes are particularly of concern when they are designed to influence drug prescriptions&comma; and the Department of Justice will vigorously pursue companies that subvert the law at the public’s expense&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The settlement resolves allegations that Forest violated the Anti-Kickback Statute&comma; which prohibits the payment of remuneration to induce referrals of items or services covered by federal health care programs&comma; by providing payments and meals to certain physicians in connection with speaker programs about Bystolic®&comma; Savella®&comma; or Namenda® between Jan&period; 1&comma; 2008 and Dec&period; 31&comma; 2011&period; The United States contends that the payments and meals were intended as improper inducements because Forest provided these benefits even when the programs were cancelled &lpar;and Forest provided no evidence of a bona fide reason for the cancellation&rpar;&comma; when no licensed health care professionals attended the programs&comma; when the same attendees had attended multiple programs over a short period of time&comma; or when the meals associated with the programs exceeded Forest’s internal cost limitations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As a result of today’s &dollar;38 million settlement&comma; the federal government will receive &dollar;35&period;5 million and state Medicaid programs will receive &dollar;2&period;5 million&period; The Medicaid program is funded jointly by the state and federal governments&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are committed to protecting federally funded healthcare programs from fraud&comma; and this settlement reflects that commitment&comma;” said U&period;S&period; Attorney Gregory J&period; Haanstad for the Eastern District of Wisconsin&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are particularly concerned with ensuring that drugs are prescribed based on patients’ needs and not on the personal <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;tag&sol;financial-fraud&sol;" title&equals;"financial" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" data-wpil-monitor-id&equals;"679">financial<&sol;a> interests of drug manufacturers or prescribing physicians&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Quality and patient safety must be the driving factors in the medical decision making process&comma;” said Special Agent in Charge Lamont Pugh III of U&period;S&period; Department of Health and Human Services&comma; Office of Inspector General &lpar;HHS-OIG&rpar; – Chicago Regional Office&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Attempting to sway physicians to deviate from those core values with illegal inducements&comma; as alleged in this lawsuit&comma; debilitates their unbiased medical judgment at the expense of patients and taxpayers&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The settlement resolves allegations filed in a lawsuit by former Forest employee Kurt Kroening&comma; in federal court in Milwaukee&comma; Wisconsin&period; The lawsuit was filed under the qui tam&comma; or whistleblower&comma; provisions of the False Claims Act&comma; which permit private individuals to sue on behalf of the government for false claims and to share in any recovery&period; Mr&period; Kroening will receive approximately &dollar;7&period;8 million&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This settlement illustrates the government’s emphasis on combating health care fraud and marks another achievement for the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team &lpar;HEAT&rpar; initiative&comma; which was announced in May 2009 by the Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human Services&period; The partnership between the two departments has focused efforts to reduce and prevent Medicare and Medicaid financial fraud through enhanced cooperation&period; One of the most powerful tools in this effort is the False Claims Act&period; Since January 2009&comma; the Justice Department has recovered a total of more than &dollar;31&period;1 billion through False Claims Act cases&comma; with more than &dollar;19&period;4 billion of that amount recovered in cases involving fraud against federal health care programs&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The settlement is the result of a coordinated effort by the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch and the U&period;S&period; Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin&comma; with assistance from the HHS Office of the Inspector General&comma; the HHS Office of Counsel to the Inspector General&comma; the Office of the General Counsel for the Defense Health Agency&comma; the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units&comma; and the FBI&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The case is captioned United States ex rel&period; Kroening v&period; Forest Pharmaceuticals&comma; Inc&period;&comma; et al&period;&comma; Case No&period; 12-CV-366&period; The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only&comma; and there has been no determination of liability&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;opa&sol;pr&sol;forest-laboratories-and-forest-pharmaceuticals-pay-38-million-resolve-kickback-allegations">Original PressReleases&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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