On February 5, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania rejected a defendant’s public disclosure bar defense, allowing the relators to proceed with their qui tam action under the False Claims Act. Sturgeon, et al., v. PharMerica Corp, No. 15-cv-6829, 2020 WL 586978, at *1 (E.D. Pa. Feb. 5, 2020). In denying defendant PharAmerica’s motion to dismiss, the Court explained why the...
In an article published late last year, Dorsey reported on the Department of Justice’s announcement regarding the formation of a new Procurement Collusion Strike Force. The Strike Force focuses on the nexus between antitrust and public procurement, with the stated aim of targeting antitrust crimes “such as bid-rigging conspiracies and related fraudulent schemes.” If there was any question whether DOJ was serious about targeting such...
Earlier this month, the United States Department of Justice issued a press release to announce recoveries of over $3 billion from False Claims Act cases in FY2019. In making the announcement, Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt of the Civil Division emphasized, “The significant number of settlements and judgments obtained over the past year demonstrate the high priority this administration places on deterring fraud against the...
On November 21, 2019, the Second Circuit held that allegedly fraudulent loan requests presented to one or more of the Federal Reserve System’s twelve Federal Reserve Banks are “claims” within the meaning of the FCA. The court clarified that while personnel of those Federal Reserve Banks are not officers or employees of the United States, the Federal Reserve Banks themselves are agents of the United...
Following the passage of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”), which placed new limits on physician-owned hospitals, St. Luke’s Health System (“System”) took action to change one of its hospital’s ownership structures through a buy-out of the physicians’ partnership interests pursuant to the Texas Securities Act (“TSA”). The TSA allows rescission for the original price paid for a security, plus interest, in exchange for a release...
The False Claims Act (“FCA”) is an ever-present concern among health care providers and counsel, which is why it is no surprise that the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) recent “Regulatory Sprint to Coordinated Care” may impact FCA enforcement trends. Dorsey’s Health Law Blog team has been closely monitoring the “Regulatory Sprint,” including the sweeping set of proposed regulations issued by the HHS...
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently emphasized the heightened pleading standard that a relator in a qui tam False Claims Act (“FCA”) suit must satisfy to avoid dismissal under Rule 12(b)(6). United States ex rel. Gelbman v. City of New York, Case No. 18-3162, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 30889 (2d Cir. Oct. 17, 2019). In Gelbman, the relator, a former information specialist for the...
The Department of Justice can move to dismiss a whistleblower’s claim under the False Claims Act without first holding an in-person hearing, the Third Circuit recently ruled in Chang v. Children’s Advocacy Center of Delaware, No. 18-2311 (3d Cir. Sept. 12, 2019). The FCA requires that a qui tam relator have “an opportunity for a hearing” if the DOJ moves to dismiss. 31 U.S.C. § 3730(c)(2)(A)....
Last month, the D.C. Circuit revived a False Claims Act (“FCA”) retaliatory discrimination claim by a former employee of Howard University contending that she was fired by the University for objecting both internally and externally to the University’s alleged failure to maintain the humane laboratory animal living conditions on which the University’s receipt of federal funding was conditioned. See Singletary v. Howard University, No. 18-7158 (D.C. Cir. Sept. 20,...
In early August, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas granted a hospital system’s motion to dismiss a False Claims Act case that illustrates the increasing intersections in FCA litigation between data analytics and health care providers’ efforts to increase revenue through aggressive management of coding and billing practices. United States ex rel. Integra Med Analytics, LLC v. Scott et al., No....
