Potential Liability of Investors in the Healthcare Industry Heightens as Hospital Investors Enter into Novel Settlement

A recent False Claims Act settlement between the Department of Justice, a New Jersey hospital, and the hospital’s investors also included a novel Federal Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) settlement with the investors, highlighting the government’s continued efforts to pursue investors in the healthcare industry.

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DOJ Begins Memorializing Basis for Cooperation Credit in FCA Settlement Agreements

Recently, DOJ quietly began implementing what appears to be a new policy to memorialize in FCA settlements the basis for the settling company earning credit for various forms of cooperation.

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DOJ Reaches Settlement with OraPharma, Inc., Pushing Novel AKS Theory

Earlier this month the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced a $100,000 FCA settlement resolving novel allegations that a pharmaceutical company violated the Anti-Kickback Statute (“AKS”), and thereby caused the submission of false claims, through incentive compensation payments to its employees for conduct outside the scope of the employee relationship.

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Recent Settlement Illustrates Enforcement Risks Associated With Physician Roll-Ups

On December 2, 2021, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) issued a press release announcing that Flower Mound Hospital Partners (“Flower Mound”), a partially physician-owned hospital, agreed to pay just over $18 million to resolve allegations that it had violated the False Claims Act by submitting claims that violated the Stark Law and the Anti-Kickback Statute. (more…)