The Fifth Circuit ruled that a whistleblower’s voluntary dismissal with prejudice cannot affect the Government’s ability to pursue related litigation. When the Government has not yet intervened, and thus is not a yet a party, a case cannot be dismissed with prejudice as to the Government by a whistleblower. Background... Continue Reading →Tags: AKS, Anti-Kickback Statute, False Claims Act, FCA, Fifth Circuit, Northern District of Georgia, qui tam, Southern District of Texas, Vaughn ex rel. v. United Biologics, Voluntary Dismissal with Prejudice, whistleblower
Recently, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced it had entered into a $42 million settlement (“Settlement”)[1] with the owners of a California acute care hospital (“Parent Company”) to resolve allegations that the Parent Company had violated the False Claims Act by submitting false claims to Medicare and MediCal (California Medicaid)... Continue Reading →Tags: AKS, False Claims Act, FCA, Medical Director, referrals, settlement, Stark
Last week, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals issued its unpublished ruling in US ex rel.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... Continue Reading →Tags: 11th Circuit, 9(b), AKS, Anti-Kickback, Eleventh Circuit, False Claims Act, FCA, fraud with particularity, Health Management Systems, HMS, Mastej, Stark
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... Continue Reading →Tags: AKS, Anti-Kickback Statute, False Claims Act, FCA, hospital, Medical Director, radiology, safe harbor
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... Continue Reading →Tags: AKS, Anti-Kickback, Brown, False Claims Act, FCA, Fifth Circuit, Parikh, qualified immunity, Stark