Jones Day Talks Health Care: The Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act
The Ninth Circuit recently decided United States v. Schena, 142 F.4th 1217 (9th Cir. 2025), which considered the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act (“EKRA”). EKRA, enacted in 2018 to address “body brokering” and other...more
On July 11, 2025, in United States v. Schena, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued the first appellate decision interpreting the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act (“EKRA”). The decision marks a...more
In the past few months, federal prosecutors in California have brought multiple indictments under the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act (EKRA) charging the owners of substance abuse treatment facilities and their...more
As Holland & Knight previously reported, since its enactment in 2018, the Eliminating Kickbacks Recovery Act (EKRA) has been a source of anxiety and confusion for the clinical laboratory and behavioral health industries in...more
Since its enactment in 2018, the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act (EKRA) has rapidly gained momentum as a powerful tool against healthcare kickbacks. By 2020, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) had already secured its...more
Since the pandemic, COVID-19-related fraud has been a consistent target of the Department of Justice....more
Hear directly from the enforcement community - Want to gain insight into properly monitoring, detecting, investigating, and managing violations? Join us at HCCA’s Annual Healthcare Enforcement Compliance Conference to...more
Signaling its continued scrutiny of the laboratory industry, the Department of Justice (DOJ) entered into a settlement agreement with Texas lab Genotox Laboratories Ltd. last month related to compensation Genotox paid to...more
Despite some regulatory flexibilities granted to clinical laboratories during the COVID-19 crisis, there are two separate federal anti-kickback laws labs must strictly adhere to throughout this public health emergency and...more
It has been four years since Congress enacted the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act (“EKRA”), codified at 18 U.S.C. § 220. EKRA initially targeted patient brokering and kickback schemes within the addiction treatment and...more
Enacted in 2018, the Eliminating Kickbacks Recovery Act (EKRA) remains a source of anxiety and confusion in the clinical laboratory industry. In the four years since EKRA's enactment, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)...more
As in the previous fiscal year, we expect the federal government to direct much of its fraud and abuse law enforcement activities at the health care industry. The federal government has many civil, criminal, and...more
On November 4, 2021, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the conviction of several South Florida addiction treatment facility operators following a seven-week trial. ...more
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) are scrutinizing health care providers’ Medicare billings for amniotic injections. These injections are only eligible for Medicare...more
The COVID-19 pandemic has created many new enforcement priorities for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). From selling ineffective personal protective equipment (PPE) to companies fraudulently seeking loan forgiveness under...more
Engineering Firm Settles $37 Million False Claims Act Allegations - As part of a settlement agreement with the Department of Justice, QuantaDyn Corporation has agreed to pay $37,757,713.91 in restitution to resolve...more
On October 24, 2018, Congress passed the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act (the “SUPPORT Act”), two sections of which constitute the Eliminating...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”), the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and various other federal, state and local government agencies have focused enforcement efforts on the COVID-19 pandemic and are aggressively...more
I. INTRODUCTION - As discussed in recent alerts, federal and state authorities have focused their enforcement efforts on combatting fraud related to the COVID-19 pandemic....more
Widespread testing of patients and the public for COVID-19 exposure appears to be the key to reopening society sooner rather than later. Current estimates suggest that clinical laboratories across the United States have...more
The first publicly disclosed prosecution under the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act (“EKRA”) occurred last month, a little over a year after EKRA became law. As we described in a previous blog post, EKRA criminalizes...more