Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, February 13, 2015
Illinois Physician Pleads Guilty to Taking Kickbacks from Pharmaceutical Company and Agrees to Pay $3.79 Million to Settle Civil False Claims Act Case
The Department of Justice announced today that an Illinois physician, Dr. Michael J. Reinstein, pleaded guilty to a federal crime for receiving illegal kickbacks and benefits totaling nearly $600,000 from two pharmaceutical companies in exchange for regularly prescribing an anti-psychotic drug — clozapine — to his patients. Reinstein also agreed to pay the United States and the state of Illinois $3.79 million to settle a parallel civil lawsuit alleging that, by prescribing clozapine in exchange for kickbacks, Reinstein caused the submission of false claims to Medicare and Medicaid for the clozapine he prescribed for thousands of elderly and indigent patients in at least 30 Chicago-area nursing homes and other facilities.
“The Department of Justice is committed to ensuring that physicians who accept payments from pharmaceutical manufacturers to influence prescribing decisions are held accountable,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Joyce R. Branda of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “Schemes such as this one undermine the health care system and take advantage of elderly patients who are among the most vulnerable health care recipients.”
“Physicians must prescribe medications for their patients solely on the basis of the patients’ best medical interests and not because those decisions were improperly influenced by kickbacks and other financial favors,” said U.S. Attorney Zachary T. Fardon of the Northern District of Illinois.
Both the criminal and civil cases involve the promotion of generic clozapine, a rarely prescribed anti-psychotic drug that has serious potential side effects and is generally considered a drug of last resort, particularly for elderly patients. While clozapine has been shown to be effective for treatment-resistant forms of schizophrenia, it is also known to cause numerous side effects, including a potentially deadly decrease in white blood cells, seizures, inflammation of the heart muscle and increased mortality in elderly patients.
Reinstein pleaded guilty to one count of violating the federal Medicare and Medicaid Anti-Kickback Statute at his arraignment in U.S. District Court after he was charged on Feb. 3.
The civil settlement resolves a civil action filed against Reinstein by the federal government for accepting payments from pharmaceutical manufacturer Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. and a subsidiary, IVAX LLC, to induce the use of generic clozapine. The United States alleged that in exchange for these payments, Reinstein prescribed clozapine for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. The United States also alleged that Reinstein submitted and/or caused to be submitted to both Medicaid and Medicare claims for “pharmacologic management” of those patients for whom he prescribed clozapine. However, Reinstein allegedly did not engage in meaningful pharmacological management, because his prescribing decisions for his clozapine patients were based on the kickbacks he received rather than his independent medical judgment or the individual needs of his patients. In March 2014, Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. and IVAX LLC, paid the United States and the state of Illinois $27.6 million to settle allegations that they violated the state and federal False Claims Acts by making payments to Reinstein in return for him prescribing clozapine to his patients.
As set forth in the plea agreement, the payment scheme involving Reinstein began in August 2003, when Reinstein agreed to switch his patients to generic clozapine if IVAX agreed to pay Reinstein $50,000 under a one-year “consulting agreement” and to provide other benefits to Reinstein, in violation of the federal Medicare and Medicaid Anti-Kickback statute. In addition to direct payments to Reinstein, IVAX allegedly also provided all-expenses paid trips to Miami for Reinstein, his wife and various employees of Reinstein. Reinstein quickly became the largest prescriber of generic clozapine in the country and prescribed the drug to many elderly patients. Allegedly, the payments and other forms of remuneration from IVAX and later Teva Pharmaceuticals continued for many years and resulted in the submission of thousands of false claims to the Medicare Part D and Illinois Medicaid programs.
The Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits offering, paying, soliciting or receiving remuneration to induce referrals of items or services covered by Medicare, Medicaid and other federally funded programs. The Anti-Kickback Statute is intended to ensure that a physician’s medical judgment is not compromised by improper financial incentives and is instead based on the best interests of the patient.
The plea agreement and civil settlement illustrate the government’s emphasis on combating health care fraud and mark another achievement for the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) initiative, which was announced in May 2009 by the Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The partnership between the two departments has focused efforts to reduce and prevent Medicare and Medicaid financial fraud through enhanced cooperation. One of the most powerful tools in this effort is the False Claims Act. Since January 2009, the Justice Department has recovered a total of more than $23.6 billion through False Claims Act cases, with more than $15.1 billion of that amount recovered in cases involving fraud against federal health care programs.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois represented the United States in connection with the plea agreement. The civil settlement with Reinstein was the result of a coordinated effort by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General, the FBI and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office.
Except to the extent admitted by Reinstein in his guilty plea, the claims resolved by the civil settlement are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability. The civil case is captioned United States v. Reinstein, Civil Action, No. 12-C-9167 (N.D. Ill.).
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/illinois-physician-pleads-guilty-taking-kickbacks-pharmaceutical-company-and-agrees-pay-379
15-183
Updated February 13, 2015
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