The Office of the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, along with 17 other states and the United States government, secured funds from pharmaceutical manufacturer QOL Medical, LLC and Frederick E. Cooper, the company’s CEO, following allegations of a kickback scheme. QOL is a privately-held, Delaware limited liability company, with its principal place of business in Florida. QOL sells therapies, including its principal product, Sucraid, for patients with rare diseases. The agreement resolves allegations that QOL paid remuneration to induce the purchase of Sucraid in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute, the federal False Claims Act and state law False Claims Act corollary statutes. As part of this multistate action, QOL and Cooper agreed to pay more than $350,000 to the Florida Medicaid program.

Acting Attorney General John Guard said, “This pharmaceutical manufacturer misled patients on its test kits and caused the submission of false claims to Medicaid. However, thanks to the superb and diligent work of our Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and partners in this case, the company and CEO are paying up now hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

As part of the multistate action, QOL admitted that beginning in 2018, it distributed free Carbon-13 breath test kits to health care providers to give to patients with common gastrointestinal symptoms. QOL claimed that the C13 test could “rule in or rule out” Congenital Sucrase Isomaltase Deficiency, a rare genetic condition for which Sucraid is the only approved therapy by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.