Qui Tam Practice

Unlike the typical solo lawyer or small firm qui tam practice, for more than a decade, Lowey Dannenberg Cohen & Hart, P.C. has represented the nation’s largest and most sophisticated health benefits payers in complex cost recovery lawsuits. We regularly represent Aetna, Humana, CIGNA, WellPoint, numerous Blue Cross plans, and large self-funded employer benefit plans, such as Verizon, in actions to recover overpayments for health care products and services. 

Utilizing the same skills which have enabled the firm’s lawyers to recover hundreds of millions of dollars for private clients asserting similar claims in civil litigation, Lowey Dannenberg has broadened its practice to file qui tam false claim recovery lawsuits in the name of the United States under the False Claims Act. 

While the confidentiality provisions of the False Claims Act limit our ability to identify the firm’s pending qui tam actions, we can disclose that in 2009, Lowey Dannenberg filed two separate qui tam relater actions in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Both complaints are still sealed.  One concerns a scheme by a major United States pharmaceutical company, in tandem with New York City hospital personnel, to systematically send fraudulent bills to Medicare and Medicaid.  The other concerns fraud against the United States Treasury Department involving financial products.  We are at various stages of investigation of several other qui tam matters, principally involving Medicare and Medicaid fraud.

We have prosecuted major scale civil fraud recovery actions in conjunction with parallel qui tam actions for several years. For example, while the qui tam bar pursued what was at the time one of the largest civil Medicare and Medicaid fraud cases in history alleging that TAP Pharmaceuticals paid doctors kickbacks to over-prescribe the cancer drug Lupron, Lowey Dannenberg prosecuted a civil action and ultimately negotiated a $110 million settlement for private third party payers. In re Lupron Marketing and Sales Practices Litigation, No. 01-cv-1061 (D. Mass.).  Similarly, in the wake of Pfizer’s $400 million settlement of a qui tam action, Lowey Dannenberg will begin a bellwether trial in February 2010 on behalf of Aetna and Kaiser against Pfizer to recover overpayments resulting from Pfizer’s fraudulent promotion of the anti-epileptic drug Neurontin for off label uses at an excess cost to private U.S. third party payers of more than one billion dollars.  We represent other major health insurers as well, and the bellwether trial will influence the course of litigation for these other clients    In Re Neurontin Marketing and Sales Practices Litig., MDL No. 1629 (D. Mass.).  We have had similar experiences pursuing civil claims parallel to False Claims Act cases concerning other drugs and devices.

Lowey Dannenberg is different from other law firms pursuing civil cost recovery actions, and different from other law firms prosecuting qui tam actions.  We have the experiences of years at the forefront of medical and pharmaceutical recovery actions, the depth of 17 full-time lawyers, a support staff of 13, and the resources which make us the plaintiff’s law firm of choice for the most diverse blue chip clientele of health benefits payers of any U.S. plaintiff’s law firm.  Lowey Dannenberg Cohen & Hart brings these same skills and abilities to prosecute Medicare/Medicaid qui tam litigation.

For a review of your potential False Claim Act case, persons and entities with evidence of fraud against federal programs or contracts should contact: Richard Cohen (direct dial 914-733-7239), Gerald Lawrence (914-733-7258), Peter St. Phillip (914-733-7245), or Geoffrey Horn (914-7633-7259), all of whom are shareholders of the firm.