Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement
NORTHWESTERN CLOSES BOOK ON RESEARCH GRANT QUI TAM
An ex-employee of Northwestern University will collect more than $900,000 of a False Claims Act settlement that puts an end to a federal investigation of Northwestern’s research grant accounting, the Department of Justice reports.
The Evanston, IL university has agreed to pay $5.5 million to resolve civil claims levied in a qui tam suit originally filed by Richard Schwiderski, a former employee in Northwestern’s Office of Research Sponsored programs. The DOJ ultimately took over Schwiderski’s suit, which accuses Northwestern of collecting more federal research funds than it was entitled to. The feds maintain, for example, that the university overstated the percentage of its researchers’ work effort that would be devoted to National Institutes of Health grants, and failed to comply with requirements that a specified percentage of the researchers’ effort be devoted to the grant.
Northwestern did not admit to any wrongdoing in settling the matter.
Schwiderski will collect $907,500 as his whistleblower’s bounty.
Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement
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NORTHWESTERN CLOSES BOOK ON RESEARCH GRANT QUI TAM
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