Court Concludes Government Agencies Cannot Categorize Regulatory Violations as Material as a Matter of Law
On January 7, 2022, a district court in the Western District of Kentucky dismissed DOJ’s implied false certification theory relating to allegedly medically unnecessary genetic tests, holding that the prosecutors failed to adequately plead materiality. In so holding, the court set forth a novel test for materiality that forecloses the government’s ability to argue that certain regulations are per se material based on the government’s characterization of them as conditions of payment. Instead, plaintiffs must still plead “specific facts regarding the effect of a violation of that regulation” to survive dismissal. (more…)
Fraud Theories Fail Under Rigorous Standards for “Worthless Services” and Materiality
Earlier this week, a court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania dismissed a declined qui tam action in which the relator, a licensed nurse, alleged that an operator of treatment facilities for disabled individuals fraudulently billed Medicare and Medicaid for substandard care and retaliated against her for investigating that fraud.