DaVita named in Medicare fraud lawsuit

http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/blog/health_care/2011/07/davita-named-in-medicare-fraud-lawsuit.html

One of the Milwaukee area's largest providers of kidney dialysis recently was featured in the New York Times, but not for anything the company will likely want to promote on its website.

DaVita is involved in a whistle-blower lawsuit filed July 25 in the United States District Court in Atlanta alleging the company used larger-than-necessary vials of medicine knowing that Medicare would pay for the unused portion of each vial if it were deemed unavoidable waste.

The accusations are the latest related to how financial incentives may have driven overuse of pharmaceuticals in the dialysis business.

The federal government investigated the claims against DaVita for more than two years and decided in April not to join the lawsuit, according to the Times.