The False Claims Act is a United States federal law originally enacted in 1863 to recover fraudulently acquired funds from government contractors. In 1986, The False Claims Act was amended to increase... more +
The False Claims Act is a United States federal law originally enacted in 1863 to recover fraudulently acquired funds from government contractors. In 1986, The False Claims Act was amended to increase whistleblower incentives and to permit the government to seek treble damages for allegations of fraud against the government
Corporate Law Report: U.S. Manufacturing, Social Media, Online Endorsements, Hart Scott Rodino, More
Whistleblower Tax Suits on the Rise
On May 8, 2013, a jury sitting in the U.S. District Court for South Carolina found that Tuomey Healthcare System, Inc. violated the Stark Law and the False Claims Act (FCA) by illegally paying referring physicians. The jury...more
On May 8, 2013, a jury concluded that Tuomey Healthcare System, Inc. (Tuomey), a community hospital in Sumter, S.C., violated the Stark law for allegedly improper compensation arrangements in 2005 between the hospital and 19...more
Executive Summary - On May 13, 2013, generic drug manufacturer Ranbaxy USA Inc. (Ranbaxy), a subsidiary of Indian generic drug manufacturer Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, pled guilty to seven felony charges as part of a...more
On May 8, Judge Jed Rakoff of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed claims by the United States for damages and civil penalties under the False Claims Act against Countrywide and...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in United States ex rel. Hobbs v. MedQuest Associates, Inc., 711 F.3d 707 (6th Cir. April 1, 2013), recently reversed an $11.1 million False Claims Act (“FCA”) judgment,...more
This week the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services (“OIG”) issued an updated Special Advisory Bulletin on the Effect of Exclusion from Participation in Federal Health Care Programs, an...more
When a company understands that the United States Government may have a claim against it, the company’s directors and officers are usually very aware of the applicable statute of limitations and the passage of time. When the...more
In recent years, pharmaceutical companies have faced criminal investigations and charges in regard to alleged off-label marketing of prescription drugs and kickbacks to doctors. For this reason, the filing last month of two...more
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently published a proposed rule modifying certain provisions in their Incentive Reward Program (IRP) to sweeten the incentives for reporting sanctionable conduct....more
On April 29, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York dropped its reverse false claims count in a pending False Claims Act case against a mortgage lender. U.S. v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., No. 12-7527....more
The False Claims Act (FCA), which allows both the government and whistleblowers to seek treble damages for claims of civil fraud on the United States, is a powerful tool. In the past two years, the government has aggressively...more
Arguing that relators’ counsel has retained and used, without authority, more than 800 of its attorney-client privileged and work product documents, Kinetic Concepts, Inc. (“KCI”) has asked the District Court for the Central...more
District Court Finds That Medical Group’s Failure to Further Investigate Audit Results May Violate Requirement to Return Overpayments - Background - Internal audits of third-party payment claims – frequently...more
On April 17, 2013, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) revised its Provider Self-Disclosure Protocol (SDP), originally published in 1998, and updated in...more
On April 1, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit overturned an $11.1 million False Claims Act (FCA) judgment by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee against MedQuest Associates, Inc.,...more
The Seventh Circuit recently ruled that under the False Claims Act (“FCA”) treble damages should be calculated by the net amount of loss suffered by the government (after appropriate setoffs or credits are deducted) rather...more
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently issued a decision overturning an $11.1 million False Claims Act (FCA) verdict against MedQuest Associates, Inc. (MedQuest) for submitting claims to Medicare in violation of the...more
This spring saw two significant victories for health care providers in the federal courts of appeals. In both cases, the courts rejected an aggressive government theory under the False Claims Act (FCA), the first related to...more
Following the ever-growing progeny of cases holding that Medicare conditions of participation do not give rise to False Claims Act (FCA) liability, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit overturned an $11...more
The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit recently heard oral arguments in United States ex rel. Heineman-Guta v. Guidant Corp., et al. (12-1867). During oral argument, the panel considered, among other issues,...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in United States ex rel. Carter v. Halliburton Co, et. al (No. 12-1011), recently vitiated two traditional defenses in actions under the False Claims Act (“FCA”). First, the...more
Not surprisingly, private industry frequently considers hiring current and former federal government employees for their experience, knowledge base, and skill sets. As a reaction to the continuing perception, however, that...more
In this Issue: - Top News ..Large Hospital Systems Settles for $25.5 Million for False Claims Act Allegations ..Catholics’ Challenge to Contraceptive Coverage Mandate Dismissed As Not Ripe - States...more
In what might be an unsettling trend for employers, juries in Philadelphia and Anchorage have recently issued multi-million dollar jury awards in favor of whistleblowers. Specifically, on March 22, 2013, a Philadelphia Common...more
EDITOR’S NOTE - The last few months have not failed to provide interesting False Claims Act (FCA) activity in the courts. We begin our newsletter by examining a case brought in the energy sector, alleging that a...more
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