False Claims Act Insights - How a Marine Fisheries Dispute Opened an FCA Can of Worms
False Claims Act Insights - If Everything Matters, Nothing Does: Parsing Materiality in FCA Disputes
Podcast: Non-binding Guidance: SEC Disclosure Issues for Life Sciences Companies
Life Sciences Quarterly (Q3 2019): SEC Enforcement and Class Actions Regarding FDA Communications
Relator Ronald Streck filed suit under the False Claims Act (FCA) asserting that Eli Lilly falsely under-reported its Average Manufacturer Price (AMP) for Medicaid by excluding “price increase values” (sometimes called...more
As we do every year, this issue revisits the key cases and other developments from the year gone by. And by most metrics, 2023 was a notable year for the False Claims Act (FCA). We start with the numbers: The Department...more
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed judgment against relators in a case alleging that a group of dairy farmers growing corn violated the False Claims Act by filing false insurance claims paid by the Federal...more
Below are noteworthy False Claims Act (FCA) decisions from the third quarter of 2023. The main issues in the cases are: Materiality. The Fourth Circuit held that a pharmacist’s efforts to falsify patient eligibility...more
The False Claims Act’s (FCA) materiality requirement as articulated by the U.S. Supreme Court in Universal Health Servs., Inc. v. United States ex rel. Escobar, 579 U.S. 176 (2016) was again front and center, this time in a...more
The Supreme Court issued a number of headline-grabbing decisions this term on topics like religious accommodation, LGBTQ protections, and consideration of race in college admissions. These decisions are wide-reaching and...more
In this post, we summarize noteworthy False Claims Act (FCA) decisions so far from 2023. Each of the three circuit court opinions discussed here ruled in favor of the defendants on different aspects of the FCA: the Sixth...more
Because qui tam claims sound in fraud, under precedent and Rule 9(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, relators are required to plead their claims with a heightened degree of specificity that many, having limited...more
Tenth Circuit recently emphasized that the liability imposed under the False Claims Act (FCA) is predicated on a rigorous materiality requirement. Upholding dismissal of a qui tam complaint based on allegations of false...more
As previously discussed as a part of our ongoing FCA Fundamentals series, the False Claims Act (FCA) is the federal government’s most important and most effective tool for fighting fraud. While Congress has substantially...more
E. False Claims Act: Materiality - 1. False Claims Amendments Act of 2021 (S.2428) - • The Senate Committee on the Judiciary has approved for the Senate’s full consideration an amendment to the FCA that would...more
The final months of 2021 saw a flurry of noteworthy False Claims Act (FCA) activity. Among other developments, appellate courts issued important decisions concerning materiality, the government’s qui tam dismissal authority,...more
In July 2021, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill, S. 2428, entitled the False Claims Amendments Act of 2021 ("S. 2428"), which proposed substantive and procedural amendments to the False Claims Act ("FCA")....more
The Situation: A jury had originally handed down a large verdict in a False Claims Act ("FCA") case that resulted in $347 million judgment. The district court threw out that verdict, however, and the relators appealed. The...more
The Situation: The Supreme Court's ruling in Universal Health Services, Inc. v. U.S. ex rel. Escobar, 136 S. Ct. 1989 (2016), opened the door to more materiality defenses under the False Claims Act ("FCA"), but without making...more
Earlier this month, the United States Department of Justice issued a press release to announce recoveries of over $3 billion from False Claims Act cases in FY2019. In making the announcement, Assistant Attorney General Jody...more
Following the passage of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”), which placed new limits on physician-owned hospitals, St. Luke’s Health System (“System”) took action to change one of its hospital’s ownership structures through a...more
With more than 34.8 billion recovered by the government since 2010 under the federal False Claims Act, it has never been more crucial for private practitioners and corporate in-house counsel to keep abreast of the changes and...more
The past 18 months have been a (relatively) wild time for the False Claims Act - on the books since 1863. In FY2018 the Department of Justice obtained more than $2.8 billion in settlements and judgments from cases involving...more
As predicted, a recent decision from the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of California is the first sign of a new, and potentially enormous wave, of Civil False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. §§ 3729-33 (“FCA”) actions...more
The Northern District of Illinois is the latest court to grant a defendant’s motion to dismiss in a False Claims Act (FCA) case, after the relator failed to meet the substantial pleading burden established in the U.S. Supreme...more
Perhaps the single most appropriate word to describe the current state of the civil and criminal healthcare fraud enforcement environment is uncertainty. From changes in personnel and policy at the highest levels of...more
The solicitor general filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court last month supporting the relators’ opposition to certiorari in Gilead Sciences, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Campie, et al., No. 17-936. Yet the...more
On November 30, 2018, the Solicitor General of the United States filed an amicus curiae brief in the closely watched False Claims Act (FCA) lawsuit, Gilead Sciences Inc. v. U.S. ex rel. Campie. In what appears to be an...more
• Escobar’s two-part implied false certification test is mandatory in the 9th Circuit. • Though couched as adopting the Escobar standard, the 9th Circuit panel’s decision may actually undermine Escobar’s overarching...more