Legal

The Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits anyone from offering or paying, directly or indirectly, money or anything else of value to induce referrals of patients or to provide recommendations of items or services covered by Medicare, Medicaid and other federally funded programs.

Lawyers for CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre said the proceedings seemed likely to violate his constitutional rights.

In the last year, Lockheed Martin, AT&T, Alcoa and GE have been sued by employees in class action lawsuits over the PRT deals made with Athene, alleging the firm "breached their fiduciary duty," says law firm Schlichter Bogard.

Callahan Financial, Richard Bernstein and other registered investment advisors made untrue or unsubstantiated claims or lacked required disclosures, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The IBM lawsuit caught the attention of Labor Department, which claims the three-year deadline to bring a fiduciary claim doesn't apply because workers didn't have "actual knowledge" of the ERISA violation.

It's critical that employers and their benefits advisors take the fiduciary standards learned from retirement plans and apply them to their health plans.