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
The Attorney General of the United States has an unreviewable veto power over qui tam settlements, according to the Fourth Circuit’s recent published decision in United States ex rel. Michaels v. Agape Senior Community.[1] In the same decision, the court declined to decide an issue raised by the relators over... Continue Reading →Tags: Agape, False Claims Act, Fourth Circuit, government, Michaels, qui tam, settlement, statistical sampling, statistics, veto
Releases of FCA claims my only be effective in very limited circumstances, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a decision this week. In US ex rel. Ladas v. Exelis, Inc, et al., the court ruled that a pre-filing release is unenforceable as a matter of public policy –... Continue Reading →Tags: Exelis, False Claims Act, FCA, Lados, Release, Second Circuit, settlement
An Indiana Federal District Court just published an opinion on an issue of first impression in the Seventh Circuit, the ability of the government to reject or approve a settlement in a case in which they did not intervene. The court also opined on the ability of a whistleblower to... Continue Reading →Tags: False Claims Act, FCA, Howze, settlement, Sleep Centers, whistleblower
On May 26, 2015, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Kellog Brown & Root Service, Inv. et al. v. United States ex rel. Carter, 575 U.S. ____ (2015), Case No. 12-1497. Most of the commentary on the case centers around the Court’s decision on the Wartime Suspension... Continue Reading →Tags: bar, Brown, Carter, False Claims Act, FCA, first to file, Kellogg, original source, prejudice, public disclosure, qui tam, Root, settlement, whistleblower