The government alleged that RightCHOICE, which participates in the FEHB Program as part of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Service Benefit Plan (SBP), passed on excessive costs to the FEHB Program in connection with compensating a preferred provider network of physicians known as “Alliance.” The government contended that RightCHOICE paid higher fees to Alliance physicians for serving patients insured through the SBP than these same physicians were reimbursed for providing the same types of services to patients insured through various other health plans. The government also alleged the physicians passed on these higher rates to the Office of Personnel Management as purportedly “reasonable” costs to the FEHB.

“Today’s settlement demonstrates the United States’ determination to make sure health care providers do not overcharge the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program,” said Peter Keisler, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.

The civil settlement resolves claims brought under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act by Ronald Ekstrand against Wellpoint Health Networks, Inc., the entity into which RightCHOICE merged in January 2002. Mr. Ekstrand will receive $165,750 of the total recovery as his statutory award for his suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. Under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act, private individuals can bring whistleblower actions for fraud on behalf of the United States and collect a share of any proceeds recovered by the suit as well as attorney fees.

"This civil health care fraud settlement should send a signal to all health care providers who receive federal funds that we are committed to protecting the health care system from fraud or abuse," said Catherine L. Hanaway, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri..

The case was handled by the Civil Division of the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri. The case was investigated by the St. Louis offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Office of Personnel Management-Office of the Inspector General.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said on Wednesday he would let selected members of the Democratic-led U.S. Congress see secret court documents that authorized President George W. Bush's newly revised domestic spying program.

Lawmakers and civil liberties groups called it a significant first step for an administration that in the past often refused to provide information to Congress, but they urged the Bush administration to provide full details about the program.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said he would review the documents and then decide if "further (congressional) oversight or legislative action is necessary."

The administration announced an abrupt end to what had been a 5-year-old warrantless surveillance program on January 17, two weeks after Democrats took control of Congress and vowed to bring the program in line with law. The surveillance program will now be subject to approval from the secret U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

Critics had charged Bush overstepped his power after the September 11 attacks with warrantless domestic spying as well as actions such as holding terrorism suspects indefinitely without charges and interrogations that some said amounted to torture.

Democrats had complained that while Bush's fellow Republicans controlled Congress, their requests for information from the president were frequently rejected or ignored.

At a January 18 Judiciary Committee hearing, Democrats and Republicans alike demanded that Gonzales provide details about the agreement the Justice Department had reached with the secret court.

A former eye doctor who set off a seven-year federal investigation into class action law firm Milberg Weiss has agreed to plead guilty to taking $6.4 million in secret kickbacks from the firm, lawyers in the case said on Wednesday.

Steven Cooperman, 64, of Connecticut will plead guilty to a charge of conspiring with Milberg Weiss and some of its partners to obstruct justice and make false statements in class actions the firm filed against scores of publicly traded companies between 1988 and 2003, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles said.

The firm and two of its senior partners have been indicted on charges that they participated in a scheme to pay secret kickbacks to Cooperman and other plaintiffs.

Milberg Weiss and its partners have pleaded not guilty.

That case is set for trial in 2008.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Milberg Weiss said the allegations against the firm "are not new" and "have never been credible and they are no more so today."

Cooperman first brought Milberg Weiss to prosecutors' attention after he was convicted in 1999 of federal insurance fraud charges for staging the theft of two paintings, a Picasso and a Monet, from his Los Angeles-area home.

Prosecutors gave Cooperman amnesty in the Milberg Weiss investigation in exchange for his cooperation in providing the government with information about the alleged kickback scheme.

An Oshkosh couple must move from the home where they allegedly made a 13-year-old daughter stay confined to a bedroom up to 22 hours a day.

Clint and Lynn Engstrom were evicted by a Winnebago County court official Wednesday, a day after he ordered that they each should stand trial on a charge of mental abuse of a child.

Court Commissioner Daniel Bissett ruled in favor of their landlord who said they were not paying rent or utilities and owe more than $4,700.

The Engstroms, jailed in lieu of $25,000 bail each, face an eviction deadline of Monday to move out of the house. Bissett told them the deadline could not be extended.

The girl testified Wednesday that her father and stepmother ordered her to stay in her sparsely furnished upstairs bedroom for months, as punishment for her bad behavior that included hitting, kicking, lying and making "mean comments."

Defense lawyers said the Engstroms will plead not guilty at a hearing in Circuit Court Monday.

BOSTON--The Gordon Law Group, a leading Massachusetts employment law firm which specializes in representing employees in wage, termination and compensation litigation, announces that managing partner, Philip Gordon, has been named to the Boston Business Journal’s prestigious “40 Under 40” list. In its ninth year, the Journal’s program recognizes emerging business leaders in Greater Boston that help drive the regional economy.

Gordon’s practice focuses on the employee, with particular attention to those matters related to overtime, minimum wage, commission, wrongful termination, employee misclassification, severance agreements, non-compete agreements, wrongful deductions, record keeping and equity compensation.

He was nominated to the 40 under 40 list by Gordon Law Group, LLP clients and community leaders, who described him as a “strategic, big-picture thinker.” “Philip designs effective strategies to make use of the law and achieve extraordinary results,” they continued. “He’s also proactive and trustworthy. Not one to languish on an idea, Philip stays on top of our issues, sometimes even pushing us.”

His work has been noted also within the legal community, including coverage in Boston Magazine, where he was named one of Massachusetts’ Top 100 Lawyers in the 2005 list of “Massachusetts Super Lawyers.”

He is also extensively involved in pro bono work, supporting education and medicine. He is one of the Senior Partners for Justice of the Wage and Hour Project of the Volunteer Lawyers Project, and he serves as Vice Chairman of the Public Policy Committee of the Jewish Community Relations Council, a member of the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, and a member of the Board of Governors of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies.

The Gordon Law Group, LLP is considered among a select set of boutique law firms focused on employees. The firm’s attorneys offer a level of sophistication and excellence unusual in a firm of its size, and concentrate on claims for regular wages, overtime pay, minimum wages, commissions, health insurance contributions, vacation benefits, bonuses and severance payments, as well as stock options and other forms of equity. The firm also has expertise with respect to misclassification of employees as independent contractors, treatment of non-exempt employees as exempt and enforcement of executive liability.

Long known as a leader in the Boston community, the Gordon Law Group is proud of his service.

Fewer Guantanamo Bay prisoners will be charged with war crimes this week than originally expected, chief prosecutor USAF Col. Moe Davis told Reuters Monday. Revised charges were expected to be filed against up to 20 suspected members of al Qaeda and the Taliban by February, but new procedural rules implemented earlier this month will delay the trials for at least half of those detainees. Under the new rules, hearings must take place before a tribunal judge within 30 days of the filing of charges; the trial must commence within 120 days of the charging. Davis also pointed to Guantanamo's limited facilities as partially responsible for the delay, as only one courtroom is available.

Davis said that he was very likely to recommend the death penalty for some of the 14 high-value detainees moved to the camp from CIA secret prisons in September. First evidence is expected to be presented by this summer. Davis also said Monday that Australian detainee David Hicks will likely be among those charged this week.