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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.

Category: Uncategorized

Escobar / Materiality / Pleading Standards / Uncategorized

10 Dec, 2019

Escobar in Action: Physician-owners’ fraud claims against hospital defeated in Fifth Circuit appeal for lack of materiality

Siena Caruso

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...

Data Security / Defense Industry / Enforcement / Settlements / Uncategorized

20 Aug, 2019

Software Provider and DOJ Reach $8.6M Settlement for FCA Case Involving Alleged Cyber Security Shortcomings

Jack Huerter

Amid increased public and government attention to cyber security, a qui tam plaintiff’s lawsuit has resulted a large settlement for a government contractors’ purported misrepresentations regarding compliance with government cyber security standards. In what is believed to be the first-of-its-kind settlement of an FCA claim premised upon cyber security misrepresentations, Cisco Systems recently agreed to pay $8.6 million to the federal and state governments. The...

Intervention / Settlements / Uncategorized

2 Jul, 2019

An Ambulance Provider’s Long Road to Settlement

Vanessa J. Szalapski

On June 20, 2019, more than six years after the case was first set into motion by the Relator, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland announced in a press release that Hart to Heart Ambulance Services, Inc. (“Hart to Heart”) settled a false claims act case—which alleged that it submitted false claims to Medicare for ambulance transports that were not medically necessary—for...

Statute of Limitations / Supreme Court / Uncategorized

16 May, 2019

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

Ben Kappelman

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...

Escobar / Healthcare / Uncategorized

10 Jul, 2018

Sixth Circuit: Timing of Physician Certification for In-Home Care Remains Material After Escobar

Ben Kappelman

A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit again revived an FCA suit against home-health services providers premised on the providers’ alleged improper procurement of physician medical necessity certifications supporting Medicare claims. In United States v. Brookdale Senior Living Communities, Inc., — F.3d —-, 2018 WL 2770598 (6th Cir. June 11, 2018), a nurse alleged she was hired by several...