Court Grants DOJ’s Motion, Consistent with the Granston Memo, to Dismiss Patient Support Services FCA Litigation
The District Court has ruled on motions filed by DOJ to dismiss FCA cases against certain drug manufacturers in declined qui tam suits, consistent with the principles articulated in the Granston Memo. We previously described DOJ’s motions here. On Friday, the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas adopted in part the recommendation of a Magistrate Judge that DOJ’s motion be granted. Specifically, the Court agreed that the government had satisfied the heightened standard for dismissal adopted by the Ninth and Tenth Circuits, as articulated by the former in Sequoia Orange; namely, that the government has a legitimate interest in preserving its resources, that dismissal was rationally related to that interest, and that there is no evidence that the government’s decision was “fraudulent, arbitrary and capricious, or illegal.” In particular, the Court found the government’s interest in controlling litigation costs to be legitimate and held that avoiding the need to make employees available for deposition is rationally related to that interest. As such, the Court found it unnecessary to address the Magistrate’s recommendation that it instead adopt the view, embraced by the D.C. Circuit in Swift and other courts (as reported here and here), that DOJ has “unfettered discretion” to dismiss FCA claims. The court’s opinion is here.
Friday’s ruling bolsters DOJ’s efforts to dismiss meritless qui tam suits but fails to sharpen the split of authority on the breadth of its right to do so. We will continue to monitor and report on updates on this important issue.
DOJ Defends Medicare Advantage Upcoding Claims Against Sutter
On August 28, 2019, the United States filed a brief in opposition to Sutter’s June 14, 2019 motion to dismiss the Department of Justice’s Complaint-in-Intervention in a False Claims Act suit alleging Sutter knowingly submitted and caused the submission of unsupported diagnosis codes for Medicare Advantage Organization (MAO) patients in order to inflate Medicare reimbursements. On the same day, the Relator, Kathy Ormsby, also filed a similar brief in opposition to Sutter’s motion to dismiss. We previously discussed Sutter’s motion to dismiss here and the Department of Justice’s Complaint-in-Intervention here.
Medicare Advantage Providers Pay $5M to Settle FCA Allegations Relating to Unsupported Diagnosis Codes
On August 8, 2019, Beaver Medical Group L.P. (“Beaver”) and a Beaver-affiliated physician, Dr. Sherif Khalil, agreed to pay a combined total of $5 million to resolve allegations that the providers knowingly submitted diagnosis codes that were not supported by the medical records in order to inflate reimbursements from Medicare. The qui tam action was brought by a former employee of Beaver, Dr. David Nutter, and DOJ intervened. The settlement reflects DOJ’s continuing efforts to use its enforcement power to pursue fraud in the Medicare Advantage space despite recent setbacks in the UnitedHealthcare Insurance Co. v. Azar, 330 F. Supp. 3d 173 (D.D.C. 2018), which vacated a portion of CMS’s 2014 Final Overpayment Rule applicable to the Medicare Advantage program, previously discussed here. Indeed, in its press release, DOJ emphasized that preventing Medicare Advantage fraud remains a top priority: “As enrollment in Medicare Advantage continues to grow, investigation into accuracy of diagnosis data becomes ever more important….Those who inflate bills sent to government health programs can except to pay a heavy price.” We will continue to monitor and provide updates on these issues as they develop.
DOJ’s press release can be found here.
District Court Dismisses FCA Suit in Medicare Advantage Upcoding Case
On August 6, 2019, the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas granted a motion to dismiss filed by Baylor Scott & White Health (“Baylor”), a network of inpatient short-term acute care hospitals, in a False Claims Act suit alleging that Baylor submitted “more than $61.8 million in false claims” by upcoding certain diagnosis codes. The Court dismissed all claims with prejudice, finding that the Relator, Integra Med Analytics LLC, alleged only “naked assertions devoid of further factual enhancement” that were “insufficient under Rule 8’s pleading standards.” The Department of Justice declined to intervene in the suit.
Court Establishes a Test to Determine the Scope of the FCA’s “News Media” Provision
On July 16, 2019, the United States District Court for the Central District of California granted in part and denied in part motions to dismiss a declined FCA suit against defendants Providence Health & Services (“Providence”), its affiliates, and J.A. Thomas and Associates, Inc. (“JATA”), a clinical documentation consultant. The suit alleges that Providence perpetrated an upcoding scheme whereby it trained its doctors to describe medical conditions with language that would support increasing the severity levels of the DRGs that Providence reported to Medicare, leading to inflated Medicare reimbursements.
Eleventh Circuit Holds That It Is Relator’s Burden To Prove Lack of Fair Market Value As An Essential Element of AKS-Based Claims
Last week, the Eleventh Circuit issued an opinion holding that a Relator bringing an FCA claim premised on an AKS violation – at least when relating to lease arrangements – must show that the financial arrangements were not at fair market value. See Bingham v. HCA, Inc., Case No. 1:13-cv-23671 (11th Cir. 2019). Significantly, this ruling provides that proving fair market value (or lack thereof) is not a burden imposed solely on defendants as part of a safe harbor defense, but is instead an essential element to establishing the existence of remuneration in the first instance. In the same opinion, the court also held that a Relator cannot rely upon information gleaned in discovery to satisfy Rule 9(b)’s pleading requirements.
Sutter Health Files Motion to Dismiss Criticizing DOJ’s Outdated FCA Theories in Medicare Advantage Case
On June 14, 2019, Sutter Health (“Sutter”) filed a Motion to Dismiss the Department of Justice’s Complaint-in-Intervention in a False Claims Act suit alleging Sutter knowingly submitted and caused the submission of unsupported diagnoses codes for Medicare Advantage patients in order to inflate Medicare reimbursements. The Department of Justice filed its Complaint-in-Intervention on March 4, 2019, which we previously discussed here.
Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Discusses DOJ’s Corporate Enforcement Priorities, Focus on Corporate Compliance
At the recent Compliance Week Annual Conference, Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Claire McCusker Murray delivered extensive remarks on DOJ’s corporate enforcement priorities. Of particular note, Murray discussed a number of policy reforms focused on promoting and incentivizing corporate compliance and cooperation.
District Court Relies on Azar’s Overruling of Overpayment Rule to Deliver Another Blow to DOJ’s MA Enforcement Efforts
On March 29, 2019, the United States District Court for the Central District of California denied the Department of Justice’s Motion for Partial Summary Judgment against UnitedHealth Group (“United”) in a False Claims Act suit alleging that United knowingly retained overpayments for unsupported diagnosis codes submitted for Medicare Advantage patients. In reaching its decision, the Court relied on the decision by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to vacate a portion of CMS’s 2014 Final Overpayment Rule applicable to the Medicare Advantage program in UnitedHealthcare Insurance Co. v. Azar, 330 F. Supp. 3d 173 (D.D.C. 2018), which we previously discussed here.
Court Dismisses DOJ’s Complaint against Pharmacy and Private Equity Fund, But Permits Re-Pleading
As we previously reported here and here, DOJ is pursuing a compounding pharmacy and its private equity fund owner alleging the pharmacy filed claims with Tricare that were rendered false by alleged kickbacks.
In November, the Magistrate Judge filed an opinion recommending the FCA claims be dismissed for DOJ’s failure adequately to plead its claims on either an implied or express certification theory of liability. However, the Magistrate went on to hold that the allegations that the private equity fund and its principals knew of some of the alleged misconduct and caused the submission of false claims by the portfolio company were otherwise sufficient to state a claim against those defendants under the False Claims Act. (more…)