DaVita Inc. will pay $63.7 million to settle a whistle-blower lawsuit that alleged that the Denver-based company’s pharmaceutical division improperly billed the federal government for medications that were not used by patients and that it paid financial inducements to beneficiaries in violation of the federal anti-kickback laws.
The settlement — $22.2 million of which already has been repaid and another $41.5 million that will be paid in the near future — came after the company (NYSE: DVA) discovered and self-disclosed the issues to the federal government in 2015 and 2016, prosecutors noted.
Two former DaVita employees also filed a whistle-blower lawsuit in U.S. District Court in northern Texas in 2016.
This latest settlement follows DaVita agreeing to pay $389 million in 2014 to settle anti-kickback allegations surrounding joint ventures made with nephrologists and agreeing to pay $495 million in 2015 on a whistle-blower settlement regarding its billing over certain drugs that were only partially dispensed.
Read more at the Denver Business Journal: http://bit.ly/2kxHW0k
