Articles and Blogs

Last week, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals issued its unpublished ruling in US ex rel. Mastej v. Health Management Associates, Inc. At issue was whether the relator’s Third Amended Complaint adequately pled fraud with particularity, as required by Fed.R.Civ.Pro. 9(b). Mastej was an Health Management Associate (“HMA”) executive from 2001 to February 2007. In that... READ MORE

Several FCA opinions have been issued since the last FCA Update. The most interesting is a District of Nevada case, US ex rel Guardiola v Renown Health. Renown Health was the parent company for two other corporate defendants that provided acute health care services. The relator was Renown’s Director of Clinical Compliance. She alleged Renown improperly billed... READ MORE

Several FCA opinions have been issued since the last FCA Update. The most interesting is a District of Nevada case, US ex rel Guardiola v Renown Health. Renown Health was the parent company for two other corporate defendants that provided acute health care services. The relator was Renown’s Director of Clinical Compliance. She alleged Renown improperly billed... READ MORE

In a new case from the Southern District of Ohio, US_v_MillenniumRadiology, the court denied a motion to dismiss a False Claims Act suit, finding that compliance with a safe harbor could only be raised on summary judgment. The court also found that uncompensated service as a medical director could form the basis for a False Claims... READ MORE

From October 1 through October 12, 2014, there were 14 federal cases reported that mentioned the False Claims Act. One was previously discussed in the September 2014 FCA Update. Eight more only tangentially discussed the False Claims Act. Five cases might be of interest to parties and counsel in a False Claims Act suit. US... READ MORE

Only one FCA case of interest was decided by a U.S. Circuit Court in September. In US ex rel Parikh v Brown, the Court found that a county hospital and its administrator’s participation in a “simple, brazen kickback scheme” could not be shielded by qualified immunity. The hospital and its administrator split pain center revenues with... READ MORE

Leslie R. Caldwell, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, announced recently that all new qui tam complaints would be “shared by the Civil Division with the Criminal Division as soon as the cases are filed.” Fraud prosecutors will now review all qui tam complaints to determine whether to open a parallel criminal investigation. READ MORE

The Seventh Circuit reversed a district court’s decision finding that it lacked jurisdiction over a whistleblower’s claim under the False Claim Act’s public disclosure bar. In U.S. ex rel. Heath v. Wisconsin Bell, Inc., the Court held that even though the Complaint relied in part upon publicly available information, the Relator’s allegations rested upon... READ MORE

The Fifth Circuit rejected the government’s attempt to expand the FCA’s reach to include non-government funds overseen by a non-governmental entity simply because the government had the ability to exert a modicum of control over the entity. READ MORE

This week a Court in the Middle District of Florida dealt a blow to a whistleblower’s allegations of fraud in U.S. ex rel. Baklid-Kunz v. Halifax Hospital Medical Center ruling that: (1) the Relator is barred from recovering damages even if it can prove its allegations and (2) the Relator is barred from arguing or... READ MORE