AccomplishmentsProtecting Public Dollars from Fraud and Abuse

Attorney General Tong believes every public dollar should be protected from fraud and abuse.

Since taking office, Attorney General Tong has worked in close coordination with federal prosecutors to fight fraud and protect our public healthcare investments. Since 2019, that work has recovered $82 million.

Until recently, Connecticut law limited the Attorney General’s False Claims Act authority to only state-administered health or human services programs. Attorney General Tong successfully fought to expand and strengthen the law to protect against abuse of tax dollars anywhere in state government.

This work includes an ongoing joint civil investigation with federal law enforcement partners into kickbacks paid by dentists to third-party patient recruiting companies. In 2024, following a seven-day bench trial, Attorney General Tong secured a $39 million judgment against Florida-based pharmacy Assured Rx following a kickback scheme involving illegal payments to retired state employees for costly compound drug prescriptions. Other cases include a $59 million multistate settlement with Pfizer-owned BioHaven over illegal kickbacks paid to doctors to encourage prescriptions, a $202 million multistate settlement with Gilead Sciences over illegal kickbacks for HIV medications, a $14.9 million court judgment against a Norwalk doctor over billing for services he never provided, a $1.2 million settlement with a lab over medically unnecessary urine drug tests, a $1.7 settlement for overbilling for testing services, a $455,598.31 settlement with a nurse for causing Medicaid to pay for injectable specialty drugs she failed to administer to patients, another $600,000 settlement with an APRN who billed for services not provided, for services of an unlicensed provider and for upcoding and duplicative claims, among many, many others.