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Last Friday, federal regulators finalized and announced the settlement of a whistleblower suit alleging that a group of doctors performed medically unnecessary cardiac procedures on patients. The settlement requires an Ohio hospital to pay $3.9 million and a physician group to pay $541,870. The settlement resolves a whistleblower lawsuit filed […]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) recently announced that consumers that were unlawfully charged advance fees for debt-settlement services will receive refunds. State Attorneys General of North Carolina, New Mexico, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and the State of Hawaii Office of Consumer Protection all joined CFPB’s lawsuit, marking the first time […]

The U. S. Department of Justice last month announced a $45 million settlement of a False Claims Act case filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. Japanese-based Toyo Inc. and various affiliated companies have agreed to pay $45 million to settle claims that they […]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) recently announced actions to shut down mortgage loan modification scams that had victimized thousands of distressed homeowners throughout the nation. The scams took in more than $10 million by charging consumers for services that falsely promised foreclosure avoidance assistance or renegotiation of mortgages. Federal […]

Banks were fined a record of more than $10.7 billion in 2012 for various misdeeds ranging from manipulating interest rates to improperly foreclosing on distressed homeowners. The record $10.7 billion total includes only what banks paid to U.S. and state authorities, not the additional billions global banks also agreed to […]

Raleigh-based WakeMed has agreed to pay $8 million to settle an investigation into its practice of billing Medicare for expensive overnight hospital stays even though the patients had been treated and discharged the same day. The settlement resolves criminal charges brought by the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of […]

Last week, biotechnology giant Amgen agreed to pay some $762 million to resolve claims involving unlawful marketing of the anemia drug Aranesp. Federal prosecutors charged Amgen with illegally marketing Aranesp for unapproved uses even after the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) expressly ruled them out. The federal charges were made […]

The Pew Charitable Trust has released a report on the use of arbitration clauses in financial institution customer agreements. The report contains Pew’s findings on arbitration clauses, including the prevalence of such clauses and consumer attitudes about them. Pew is likely to send the report to the Consumer Financial Protection […]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) is continuing work on its study of pre-dispute arbitration agreements. Section 1028 of the Dodd-Frank Act requires CFPB to conduct a study of and report to Congress concerning the use of arbitration clauses in consumer agreements. In April CFPB began work on the study […]

Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas has agreed to pay more than $900,000 to resolve charges that it submitted false claims to Medicare for radiation oncology services. The settlement, announced by the U.S. Department of Justice on November 27, 2012, resolves a federal whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2010 by a […]