If you’re a surgical device distributor and you want to reward a surgeon for using your products on Medicare and Medicaid patients, you may want to choose a reward that’s less conspicuous than a yacht. That’s one lesson in the recent decision in US ex rel. Cairns v. D.S. Med. In denying defendants’ …
Jurisdiction to Freeze Assets but Not to Thaw Them
April 5, 2017 Leave a Comment
A recent Fourth Circuit opinion in a False Claims Act case demonstrates that while the government can freeze defendants’ assets before trial with lightning speed, getting them unfrozen can take anywhere from many years to never. In 2014 whistleblowers filed a qui tam action against BlueWave Healthcare …
The Difference between Expecting Referrals & Inducing Them
November 4, 2016 Leave a Comment
A new Fifth Circuit opinion explains the difference between offering a benefit in order to induce a Medicare referral and offering it in the expectation of a referral. The difference is important because the former is a serious federal crime, while the latter is perfectly legal. Whistleblower Susan Ruscher …
Strangest Regulatory Interpretation of the Month
September 21, 2016 Leave a Comment
The Massachusetts federal district court is hands-down winner of the August award for strangest regulatory interpretation of the month. The interpretation came in the context of denial of Omnicare’s summary judgment motion in a False Claims Act (FCA) action brought against it by three whistleblowers. The …
Anti-Kickback Regs Near Approval, After Only 19 Years
August 25, 2016 Leave a Comment
The White House is reviewing proposed regulations to ease restrictions on certain financial arrangements between hospitals and physicians and on certain transactions between providers and patients. The proposed regulations, received by the Office of Management & Budget on August 16, are certainly welcome to …
Flying Pigs and False Claims
July 14, 2016 Leave a Comment
On July 7 the Fourth Circuit invoked Flying Pigs to vacate a lower federal court judgment in a Medicaid false claim case, even though neither the lower court nor any of the parties asked it to. The case started in 2007, when the relators filed a qui tam action in Virginia state court against several medical …