Connecticut lawmakers are moving to expand the authority of the Attorney General’s office to fight fraud and abuse in state government.
The proposal, which passed the state Assembly on a 138-7 vote, would expand the scope of the state’s False Claims Act to allow the AG’s office to investigate fraud and other government spending abuses beyond state-administered health or human services programs.
Read the full story
Pennsylvania state Representative Rob Kauffman (R-Chambersburg) is preparing a bill to strengthen enforcement against Medicaid fraud, suggesting other legislation aimed at the problem would spur unneeded litigation.Â
Kauffman’s measure would exact triple damages when a court finds a care provider deliberately and improperly claimed funds from Medicaid, the federal-state healthcare program for low-income Americans. The bill would also empower the commonwealth’s inspector general to impose civil penalties on Medicaid scammers and dedicate new funds to the state attorney general’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.Â
Read the full story
Michigan’s largest teachers union and its health insurance affiliate must repay the U.S. government more than $200,000 after taking $12.5 million in federal loans for which they were ineligible.
Lawmakers intended Paycheck Protection Program loans to help small businesses afford to pay their employees during the initial COVID-19 shutdowns.
Read the full story
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong is leading 33 states attorneys general in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a pair of lower court rulings that could have broad implications for whistleblowers, and the government’s ability to go after public fraud.
In a 15-page legal brief, Tong and the other AGs are calling on justices to uphold a pair of federal whistleblower lawsuits accusing pharmacy operators of over billing government health insurance programs for prescription drugs.Â
Read the full story
Pennsylvania-based company Reveal Global Consulting, LLC agreed to settle allegations of improper billing of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).
According to a release from the Department of Justice (DOJ), the company will pay back $820,000 to the federal agency in order to avoid consequences of potentially violating the False Claims Act.
Read the full story
A west Tennessee primary care clinic overcharged TennCare — and, by extension, taxpayers — more than $4.7 million, according to an audit that Tennessee Comptrollers published late last week.
Officials who oversaw that company, the Grove Primary Care Clinic, closed all three of their facilities in 2019. They did this one day after state auditors announced they would examine the company’s finances.
Read the full story