The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled on a Relator’s appeal in United States ex rel. Grant v. United Airlines, Inc. and adopted the objective reasonableness standard for retaliation claims brought under 31 U.S.C. §3730(h). The Fourth Circuit joins the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Circuits in applying this standard to 3730(h) retaliation claims.
On November 30, 2018, the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a noteworthy report that the implementation of new rates for laboratory testing may lead to billions of dollars in overpayments to labs. The GAO concluded that while CMS’s new clinical lab fee schedule was supposed to save hundreds of millions of dollars,
The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently ruled on a case involving 5 defendants accused of health care fraud in their operation of a jointly-owned urinalysis company.
Urinalysis is frequently used by drug treatment centers and behavioral health hospitals as a way to monitor recovering addicts’ progress toward sobriety and track permissible medications.
Post Acute Medical, LLC and its affiliated entities, operators of long‑term care and rehabilitation hospitals across the country (collectively, “PAM”) have agreed to pay the United States, Texas, and Louisiana more than $13 million dollars to resolve claims that it violated the False Claims Act and similar state laws. The government alleged that the company submitted claims to Medicare and Medicaid that resulted from violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Law.
On July 23, 2018, the Governor of Puerto Rico, The Honorable Ricardo Rosselló, signed House Bill 1627 into law, which establishes Puerto Rico’s version of the federal False Claims Act. Puerto Rico’s new law is called “The Fraudulent Claims to Programs, Contracts, and Services of the Government of Puerto Rico Act.” This is a significant development for Puerto Rico.
On Monday night, D.C. Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh was selected by President Donald J. Trump to succeed Justice Anthony Kennedy on the United States Supreme Court. The 53-year-old Kavanaugh has spent the last 12 years as a federal judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals where he authored over 300 opinions.
A postmaster in South Dakota has been ordered to pay a civil judgment of $353,441.42 to the United States for defrauding the United States Postal Service (USPS). In United States v. Christeson, Judge Karen E. Schreier of the United States District Court for the District of South Dakota granted summary judgment in favor of the government,
In United States ex rel. Forney v. Medtronic, Inc., Judge Edward G. Smith of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled in favor of the Relator by denying medical device manufacturer, Medtronic’s request for summary judgment. Judge Smith ruled that Relator Forney was not barred by the public disclosure bar because she is an original source that “materially added” to the publically disclosed allegations of fraud against Medtronic.
