Welcome to Original Source: The Sidley Austin False Claims Act Blog

The False Claims Act (FCA) has long been a key enforcement tool for the federal government in matters involving government contracts or other expenditures of government funds. FCA enforcement has traditionally focused primarily on two industries receiving a substantial amount of government funds: healthcare and defense and other government contractors. Recently, however, FCA enforcement has expanded to other industries, including financial services. Through the False Claims Act Blog, lawyers in Sidley’s White Collar, Healthcare, FDA, Government Contracting, Financial Services, Appellate, and other practices will provide timely updates on new and interesting developments relating to FCA enforcement and litigation.

Court Dismisses DOJ Complaint Alleging Improper Auto-Refill and Co-Payment Waiver for Lack of Particularity

Oct 22 2019
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On September 30, 2019, a judge in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted a motion to dismiss in an intervened FCA qui tam suit, finding that the relators, the United States, and the state of Illinois failed to satisfy Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b)’s heightened pleading requirements for fraud claims. The suit targeted an entity referred to as C&M Specialty Pharmacy (“C&M”), which provides specialized medication for complex medical conditions.

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Ninth Circuit Invited To Weigh In On Public Disclosure Bar, Falsity

Oct 21 2019
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On October 8, 2019, a judge in the United States District Court for the Central District of California granted a stay and certified two questions for interlocutory appeal in relator Integra Med Analytics’ FCA suit against Providence Health & Services (“Providence”), its affiliates, and J.A. Thomas and Associates, Inc. (“JATA”), a clinical documentation consultant.  The case, on which we have previously reported here, involves allegations 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.

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Court Grants DOJ’s Motion, Consistent with the Granston Memo, to Dismiss Patient Support Services FCA Litigation

Oct 02 2019
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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.

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Third Circuit Holds That A Live Hearing Is Not Required When Government Seeks To Dismiss FCA Complaint Over Relator’s Objection

Sep 23 2019
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The Third Circuit recently held that relators are not automatically entitled to an in-person hearing when the government moves to dismiss a qui tam suit over the relator’s objection. U.S. ex rel Chang v. Children’s Advocacy Center of Delaware, No. 18-2311 (3d Cir. Sept. 12, 2019). Weih Chang filed qui tam lawsuit in 2015 alleging the Children’s Advocacy Center of Delaware had misrepresented material information when applying for governmental funding. After a lengthy investigation, the United States declined intervention and moved to dismiss under the statutory provision that allows dismissal, “notwithstanding the objections of the person initiating the action if the person has been notified by the Government of the filing of the motion and the court has provided the person with an opportunity for a hearing on the motion.” 31 U.S.C. § 3730(c)(2)(A). The district court granted the motion to dismiss, holding that the government had shown a legitimate interest in dismissing the suit and Chang had not met the burden of showing that the move to dismiss was arbitrary or capricious. Chang appealed, arguing that he had a statutory right to an in-person hearing prior to dismissal and that at the hearing he could have introduced evidence to show that the dismissal was arbitrary and capricious. Id. at *5-6. The Third Circuit affirmed the district court opinion, holding the court had not erred in granting dismissal without conducting an in-person hearing. Id. at 8.

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DOJ Defends Medicare Advantage Upcoding Claims Against Sutter

Sep 11 2019
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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.

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The Illinois False Claims Act: Key Provisions and Current Trends

Aug 29 2019
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On August 23, 2019, Bloomberg Law published an article by Kathleen Carlson and Suzanne Notton of Sidley Austin discussing key provisions of the Illinois False Claims Act and recent trends in Illinois False Claims Act case law.  This article is the first in a series of articles addressing the False Claims Acts of states that see relatively frequent state FCA lawsuits.  In addition to Illinois, these states include California, Florida, Massachusetts, and New York.  A copy of the article can be downloaded here.

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Medicare Advantage Providers Pay $5M to Settle FCA Allegations Relating to Unsupported Diagnosis Codes

Aug 22 2019
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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.

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