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The False Claims Act is the government’s principal tool for addressing fraud in contracting, healthcare, mortgage lending, and grant administration. FCA Now provides timely developments about the law, enforcement trends, and other insights from Dorsey’s proven FCA litigators.

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This blog is not legal advice, but contains general information not applicable to specific matters. We are not acting as your legal counsel unless separately retained in a written agreement signed by us.

Author: Kirk Schuler

Kirk Schuler

Kirk practices with the Trial Group in Des Moines. He joined Dorsey in 2015 after serving as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Districts of the Northern Mariana Islands and the Central District of Illinois. As a former federal prosecutor, Kirk brings significant trial experience and advocacy skills to benefit Dorsey’s clients involved in all types of civil and criminal litigation and government investigations.

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COVID-19 / Enforcement

14 Apr, 2020

Looking Ahead: Enforcement Actions for Fraud, Waste, and Abuse Related to COVID-19

Kirk Schuler

As the public health and economic responses to COVID-19 dominate the headlines and traditional government enforcement actions slow, anticipate a significant increase in government enforcement actions, internal investigations related to corporate fraud, and qui tam (whistleblower) actions in the coming months.  The CARES Act contains appropriations for tens of millions of dollars for agency inspector general enforcement.  Leaders in federal law enforcement are telling us...

Enforcement / False Statement / Relators

5 Feb, 2020

DOJ’s Procurement Collusion Strike Force Priorities Highlighted By Bid-Rigging Qui Tam Settlement

Kirk Schuler

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...

Enforcement / Escobar / Granston Memo / Relators / Settlements

28 Jan, 2020

Justice Department Touts FY2019 False Claims Act Statistics as Evidence of Administration’s “High Priority” Against Fraud, but the Numbers Show Less of a Priority on Qui Tams

Kirk Schuler

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...

Enforcement / Healthcare / Kickbacks / Stark Law

21 Nov, 2019

Dorsey Alert: HHS Regulatory Sprint May Impact FCA Enforcement Trends

Kirk Schuler

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...

Statute of Limitations / Supreme Court

16 May, 2019

Supreme Court Settles Circuit Split and Reads the False Claims Act Statute of Limitations Provision Broadly in Boon to Relators

Kirk Schuler

On May 13, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Cochise Consultancy, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Hunt, No. 18–325, and resolved a circuit split regarding the statute of limitations for an FCA claim brought by a relator between six and ten years after a violation, but less than three years after the government knew or should have known the relevant facts. The Court held...

Enforcement / Escobar / Healthcare / Implied Certification / Insurance Coverage

14 Feb, 2019

DOJ Levels False Claims Act at Pharmacies to Combat Opioid Crisis

Kirk Schuler

This month the Department of Justice brought a “first of its kind” action against two pharmacies, their owner, and three pharmacists for allegedly dispensing and billing Medicare for prescriptions in violation of both the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and the False Claims Act (FCA).  See United States v. Oakley Pharmacy, Inc., et al., No. 2:19-cv-00009 (M.D. Tenn).  The action, seeking both injunctive relief and civil...

Enforcement / Healthcare / Settlements

14 Jan, 2019

For FY2018, Justice Department Touts Nearly $3 Billion in False Claims Act Recoveries, Mostly From Qui Tams and Alleged Healthcare Frauds

Kirk Schuler

The Justice Department announced in a recent press release that it obtained more than $2.8 billion in settlements and judgments from cases involving fraud and false claims against the government. The vast majority of this amount—$2.1 billion—came from lawsuits filed by whistleblowers, or “relators” suing on behalf of the government, under the qui tam provisions of the False Claim Act (“FCA”). Included in the qui...

11th Circuit / Relators / Statute of Limitations

19 Apr, 2018

In One Decision, The Eleventh Circuit Creates Two Circuit Splits

Kirk Schuler

Rejecting the views of the Fourth and Tenth Circuits, the Eleventh Circuit held the FCA’s three year statute of limitations period in § 3731(b)(2) applies to a relator’s claim even when the United States declines to intervene, and in so doing held it is the knowledge of a government official, not the relator, that triggers the three year limitations period, rejecting the contrary view of...

Healthcare / Kickbacks

1 Sep, 2017

Consultant Guilty of Illegal Kickbacks By “Referring” Doctors’ Patients to Another Medical Provider in Exchange for Remuneration

Kirk Schuler

Under 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7b(b)(1)(A) it is a felony for a physician to solicit or receive a kickback “in return for referring” a Medicaid or Medicare patient to another medical provider. But as a recent decision by the Eighth Circuit in United States v. Iqbal demonstrates, physicians are not the only ones capable of making illegal referrals under the statute—consultants can, too. Defendant Iqbal was a...