by Ben Vernia | December 30th, 2011
On December 29, the Department of Justice announced that GE Healthcare, Inc., paid the United States $30 million to resolve claims initially brought by a qui tam relator regarding the conduct of a company it had acquired:
GE Healthcare Inc. has paid the United States $30 million, plus interest, to settle allegations that a company it acquired in 2004, Amersham Health Inc., had violated the False Claims Act by causing Medicare to overpay for Myoview, a radiopharmaceutical used in certain cardiac diagnostic imaging procedures, the Justice Department announced.
Myoview is distributed in multi-dose vials of powder. In a process known as reconstitution, nuclear pharmacies mix the powder with a radioactive agent to prepare individual doses that are injected into patients as part of the cardiac imaging procedures. Certain Medicare payment rates for Myoview were based, in part, on the number of doses available from vials of Myoview. The government alleges that Amersham Health provided false or misleading information to Medicare regarding the number of doses available from vials, causing Medicare to pay for Myoview at artificially inflated rates.
DOJ announced that the relator will receive $5.1 million of the settlement (a 17% relator’s share).
