An Ohio-based pharmaceutical distributor will have to pay over $13 million to resolve an alleged violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute and False Claims Act.
The U.S. Department of Justice has reported that Cardinal Health, Inc., has agreed to pay $13,125,000 to settle claims that it violated the False Claims Act by paying “upfront discounts” to doctors.
“Cardinal Health recruited new customers by offering and paying cash bonuses in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute and False Claims Act,” U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins said, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. “Kickback schemes, such as this one, have the potential to pervert clinical decision-making and are detrimental to our federal health care system and taxpayers. We commend Cardinal Health for resolving this matter cooperatively.”
Pharmaceutical distributors are not allowed to offer or provide any compensation to encourage doctors to purchase medicines to use for Medicare patients.
While distributors may legally offer commercially available discounts to their customers, Cardinal Health failed to meet the requirements because there were no identifiable sales linked to the upfront discounts given to its customers, said the settlement agreements, according to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office.
The False Claims Act settlements resolve lawsuit charges filed by whistleblowers under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act.
