A swath of law firms are looking to join a class action lawsuit filed against NuVasive after the company revealed a federal investigation into its Medicare and Medicaid billing practices.
California spinal devices maker NuVasive Inc. (NSDQ:NUVA) has recently gotten very popular with law firms, which began piling onto a class action lawsuit following the revelation that the company is under investigation by the Health & Human Services Dept.’s Office of the Inspector General.
The firm of Glancy Binkow & Goldberg, representing NuVasive shareholders, filed a class action lawsuit against the company in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, which drew a lot of attention from fellow firms.
The lawsuit accuses NuVasive of making false statements about its business operations and submitting fake claims for reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid, falsely inflating NUVA shares, which dropped hard after the company revealed the OIG probe.
NuVasive in July revealed in a regulatory filing that the OIG issued a subpoena “in connection with an investigation into possible false or otherwise improper claims submitted to Medicare and Medicaid,” for documents from January 2007 through April of this year.
NuVasive said at the time that it was “working with the OIG to understand the scope of the subpoena,” but the company didn’t expect to have more information on the probe for a few months.
Several additional law firms have released statement about the lawsuit, either joining in or soliciting potential plaintiffs. The Boulder, Colo.-based Shuman Law Firm said that it’s “investigating potential claims” against NuVasive and certain of its officers, and Berkeley, Calif.’s Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro warned any potential claimants that they have until Oct. 28, 2013, to move to be named lead plaintiff in the Southern California lawsuit.
NUVA shares have dropped nearly 12% since closing at $26.99 on July24, 2013. Shares closed at $23.79 last night and were up 0.2% to $23.83 as of about 3:30 p.m.
