The Supreme Court (Court) will soon decide whether to take up a critical (and long-running) issue concerning applicability of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b) pleading standards in False Claim Act (FCA) suits. To satisfy...more
Key Points: - False Claims Act plaintiff cannot use discovery to satisfy Fed. R. Civ. P. 9(b). - Payment of fair market value is a dispositive defense in FCA actions alleging a violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute. ...more
The recent federal court opinion issued in United States ex rel. Integra Med Analytics, LLC v. Baylor Scott & White Health, et al, illustrates the continued importance of examining the plausibility of allegations made in qui...more
As part of our ongoing discussion of the Polukoff False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam case (involving allegations that certain heart procedures performed by a cardiologist, and billed for by two hospital defendants, were not...more
WHAT’S INSIDE - Who Decides How Bankruptcy Laws Are Applied? PROMESA: An Experiment Doomed to Fail - The Role of Alter Ego in Restructuring - SPECIAL FRAUD SECTION - Don’t Depend on a Handshake - Health...more
The Northern District of Illinois is the latest court to grant a defendant’s motion to dismiss in a False Claims Act (FCA) case, after the relator failed to meet the substantial pleading burden established in the U.S. Supreme...more
On February 11, 2019, the Eighth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a group of relators’ qui tam suit against Crawford County Memorial Hospital for failure to meet the pleading standards required by Federal Rule of Civil...more
The False Claims Act (FCA) continues to be the federal government’s primary civil enforcement tool for imposing liability on healthcare providers who defraud federal healthcare programs. A significant portion of FCA...more
On January 14, 2019, Intermountain Healthcare, Inc. and Intermountain Medical Center (Intermountain) filed a petition for writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court. Intermountain’s petition comes after the U.S. Court of...more
Each year, billions of dollars in damages are paid to the government as a result of False Claims Act (FCA) settlements and judgments. A significant percentage of those damages are paid out to whistleblowers – known as...more
• Under the FCA there are multiple circuit court splits related to how power should be allocated between the United States and the relator and whether the relator has contributed sufficient value to merit obtaining a...more
Last week, the Second Circuit held that a False Claims Act relator does not have to plead details of specific alleged false billings or invoices to the government, as long as he can allege facts leading to a strong inference...more
The FCA continues to be the federal government’s primary civil enforcement tool for investigating allegations that healthcare providers or government contractors defrauded the federal government. In the coming weeks, we are...more
In United States ex rel. Hirt v. Walgreen Company, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently affirmed the dismissal of a pharmacy owner’s False Claims Act (“FCA”) lawsuit because he failed to plead his...more
A recent Sixth Circuit opinion in U.S. ex rel. Hirt v. Walgreen Co. should come as welcome news for FCA defendants concerned about the implications of the Sixth Circuit’s application last year, for the first time, of a...more
On Wednesday, May 25, 2016, the Second Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision to dismiss FCA claims alleging that defendants supplied $1.5 billion worth of deficient night-vision goggles to the U.S. military. United...more