Sidley Lawyers Publish Article On Third Circuit Decision Regarding The Necessary Link Between Alleged Anti-Kickback Statute Violations And Actual Claims for Payment

Sidley lawyers Kristin Graham Koehler and Josh Fougere have authored an article as a part of the Washington Legal Foundation’s Legal Opinion Letter series, entitled “Third Circuit Confirms that False Claims Act Liability Requires Actual Evidence of a False Claim.” The article examines the Third Circuit’s recent ruling in United States ex rel. Greenfield v. Medco Health Sols., Inc., 880 F.3d 89 (3d Cir. 2018), an FCA suit premised on alleged violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute that was previously covered on this blog here.  Reaffirming the importance of showing an actual false claim for government payment, the Third Circuit held that, to prevail at summary judgment, relators must “point to at least one claim” rendered false or fraudulent by the alleged kickback scheme.  In doing so, moreover, the Third Circuit roundly rejected the relator’s arguments that a defendant “necessarily” violates the FCA by certifying that it did not pay illegal kickbacks, or that “the taint of a kickback renders every reimbursement claim false.”  Instead, the relator needed evidence of at least one “particular patient [who was] exposed to an illegal recommendation or referral and a provider [who] submits a claim for reimbursement pertaining to that patient.”  This decision should prove particularly significant for pharmaceutical manufacturers as more relators gravitate towards Anti-Kickback Statute allegations rather than off-label contentions.

The article is available for download on the Washington Legal Foundation’s website: http://www.wlf.org/publishing/publication_detail.asp?id=2706.