Welcome Pharmaceutical Industry Representatives
Effective June 1, 2008, new policies were developed for your visitation in our facility. It is important that you certify review of this policy and that you register in our facility so that our healthcare providers will know how to contact you.
Please go to this website to review our policy and register in our system.
https://hr.universityhealthsystem.com/secure/rx_rep.asp
Thank You.
FALSE CLAIMS ACT
The False Claims Act (31 U.S.C. § 3729 et seq., also called the “Lincoln Law”) allows American citizens, whether affiliated with the government or not, to file actions against federal contractors claiming fraud against the government.
The False Claims Act was passed by Congress to prevent the United States Government from paying federal funds for fraudulent claims involving goods and services. For University Health System, this includes submitting false information to third party payors, such as Medicaid and Medicare, in order to receive a higher reimbursement. Examples of this include upcoding (i.e., coding a higher DRG than the documentation supports), lab unbundling (i.e., charging separately for procedures that are usually charged as one procedure), billing for services not actually rendered and duplicate billing.
The False Claims Act outlines the federal penalties for submitting false claims, as well as protections granted to an individual who reports a violation.
Rules and Procedures
A civil action involving false claims must be made within six years of the date the violation occurred. The government official notified of the civil action has up to three years to act after learning of the allegation. No action can be taken more than 10 years from the date the violation took place.
A false claims action can be filed in any judicial district where the defendant can be found, resides or transacts business.
The Attorney General, believing an individual has information pertaining to the false claims investigation, may serve the individual with a civil investigative demand requiring that the person:
• provide any documentation materials for inspection and copy,
• answer any written interrogation about the materials,
• give oral testimony on the materials or
• furnish any combination of the three listed above.
PROTECTIONS
Any person who commits a violation will have a reduced penalty if:
• the person provides the Attorney General’s office with all the information known about the violation within 30 days,
• the person fully cooperates with any government investigation involving the violation, or
• the person comes forward in good faith and is not aware an investigation was pending.
Private individuals can file civil action (a lawsuit) against a firm participating in fraudulent activity on behalf of themselves and the United States Government. This civil