ATLANTA—In a whistleblower lawsuit, dialysis provider DaVita has been accused of intentionally throwing away extra medication in order to boost reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid.
Gambro Healthcare, which was acquired by DaVita in 2005, was also named in the allegations. Before the merger, both companies allegedly designed multiple sets of directly conflicting internal protocols that dictated how drugs should be given based on how the costs were reimbursed. The lawsuit alleged that DaVita continued these practices after the merger.
The suit was filed on behalf of the U.S. Government under the False Claims Act in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia by a former Gambro/DaVita clinic director, Daniel D. Barbir, RN, and Alon J. Vainer, MD, a nephrologist who served as Medical Director of Gambro and DaVita dialysis clinics in Georgia.
According to the lawsuit, the “dosing grids” were designed to increase volume rebates and discounts to the defendants from the manufacturers of the medications, which centered on Venofer, an iron supplement; Zemplar, a vitamin D analog; and the anemia drug Epogen.
The suit alleged that DaVita’s protocols were design to increase wastage whenever possible for Vitamin D and iron drugs where the government paid for the wastage while ensuring that there was no waste of EPO.
“There is nothing new in the amended complaint filed by the plaintiffs. These are old claims, dating back to 2007, which the government has already reviewed and declined to pursue,” DaVita spokesman Bill Meyers told RBT in an email. “In fact, the DoJ and CMS fully investigated the plaintiffs’ claims, as they are legally obligated to do, and the DoJ publicly announced that it declined to pursue the claims earlier this year. DaVita never required physicians to prescribe a particular dose of any medication at any level, at any time.”
