On December 19, 2019, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) has agreed to pay $5.5 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by submitting grant...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Public Affairs recently released a report detailing the settlements and judgments from civil cases involving fraud and abuse claims obtained in fiscal year 2019. In total, the...more
On December 17, 2019, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued an Advisory Opinion regarding a proposed supermarket loyalty program that would have provided customers with rewards points on out-of-pocket costs related to...more
The DOJ recently announced that Boston Heart Diagnostics Corporation (Boston Heart) has agreed to pay a $26.67 million settlement related to alleged violations of the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Law. This...more
The Deputy General Counsel and Chief Legal Officers at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently issued an Internal Memorandum clarifying that a recent...more
On October 4, 2019, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced a settlement in which the Retina Institute of California Medical Group, its former CEO, and several of its physicians paid the...more
The Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) recently launched a new, redesigned hotline webpage to better guide the public through the tip and complaint reporting process. The OIG hotline operations accepts tips and complaints...more
The Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 requires agencies to adjust civil monetary penalties for inflation annually. Effective November 5, 2019, the Department of Health and Human...more
On June 11, 2019, the Tenth Circuit affirmed an award of $92,592.75 in attorneys’ fees to the defendants in Pack v. Hickey, 776 F. App’x 549 (10th Cir. 2019). Pack had appealed the district court’s entry of summary judgment...more
Matthew S. Miner, Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, gave the keynote speech at the 29th Annual National Institute of Health Care Fraud, held in New Orleans, LA....more
Earlier this year, a notable trial took place in Dallas (United States v. Beauchamp, et al., 3-16 Cr. 516D (N.D. Tex.) that could have an impact on the healthcare industry in the coming years. In the trial, the DOJ brought...more
Sensitivities and new areas of focus by the government make strong compliance programs and transaction-level protections crucial for buyers in the healthcare industry, according to experts who spoke on a panel at the Annual...more
The United States Department of Justice has announced that it has recovered $2.8 Billion from False Claims Act (FCA) cases during fiscal year 2018 (the 12 months ending on September 30, 2018). The DOJ’s overall recovery in...more
Due to the infrequency in which the situation arises, the FCA’s “alternate remedy” provision is infrequently invoked or discussed. In short, this provision states that when the relator presents information about a potential...more
The FCA’s statute of limitations, 31 U.S.C. § 3731(b), has been a source of confusion and disagreement amongst the courts and litigants for years. The disagreement is focused primarily on whether a relator in a non-intervened...more
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida recently settled a False Claims Act case against Healogics, Inc. (“Healogics”) in which it was alleged that Healogics had knowingly billed Medicare for...more
A former prosecutor for the United States Department of Justice has pled guilty to attempting to sell sealed False Claims cases to the defendants in those cases and to transporting stolen goods across state lines. Jeffrey...more
The United States Department of Justice has issued a press release announcing that it recovered more than $3.7 Billion from False Claims Act (FCA) cases during fiscal year 2017 (October 1, 2016 through September 30, 2017). ...more
The FCA contains several provisions that are aimed at discouraging “parasitic” or duplicative qui tam actions. One such provision, known as the “government-action bar,” prohibits relators from bring a qui tam action “based...more
On September 11, 2017, in United States and State of Nevada ex rel. Welch v. My Left Foot Children’s Therapy, LLC, the Ninth Circuit held that an arbitration agreement between an employee-relator and her former employer was...more
The United States Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Escobar, which we have discussed previously, upheld the use of the implied certification theory where the implied certification of statutory/regulatory compliance is...more
The United States Department of Justice has issued a press release announcing that it has recovered over $4.7 Billion from cases brought under the False Claims Act (FCA) during fiscal year 2016. Fiscal year 2016 ran from...more
The Seventh Circuit says yes. Early this month, the Seventh Circuit reversed and remanded a district court’s holding that a qui tam Relator failed to properly plead a False Claims Act suit where the Complaint did not allege...more
The Supreme Court handed down its much-anticipated opinion in Universal Health Services, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Escobar et al. yesterday—a case addressing the viability of the implied certification theory in FCA...more
The Supreme Court handed down its much-anticipated opinion in Universal Health Services, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Escobar et al. yesterday—a case addressing the viability of the implied certification theory in FCA...more