The Civil Division’s priorities for pursuing recoveries under the False Claims Act during 2020 were discussed by Assistant Attorney General Joseph “Jody” Hunt. See a summary and analysis here by David Maria and Trevor Garmey in the Anticorruption blog. … Continue Reading
U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein promises an enforcement environment in which businesses can thrive. In a keynote address given at the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, he emphasized the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) commitment to “avoiding unnecessary interference in law-abiding enterprises.” Rosenstein’s reassurance to the business community also included an apparent slight to … Continue Reading
Author: Rebecca A. Worthington, Esquire In a decision sure to generate comment during the new year, the Fourth Circuit ruled in United States ex rel. Bunk v. Gosselin World Wide Moving, No. 12-1369, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 25225 (Dec. 19, 2013), that penalties of some amount must be awarded for violations of the civil False … Continue Reading
On November 13, U.S. District Court Judge Gregory A. Presnell of the Middle District of Florida partially granted the U.S. government’s summary judgment motion against Halifax Hospital Medical Center (“Halifax”). Judge Presnell ruled that Halifax failed to demonstrate that bonus compensation arrangements it made with medical oncologists satisfied a Stark Law exception. Judge Presnell found … Continue Reading
In the September 2013 edition of the Cleveland Bar Journal, Colin Jennings and Tom Zeno described the government’s determination to challenge medical decision making as medically not necessary. To read the article, visit Uncle Sam Becomes a Doctor: Government Challenges to Medical Necessity. Recent prosecutions have been born out of their prediction. In October 2013, … Continue Reading
Capping a case that has drawn the attention of healthcare lawyers and hospital executives nationwide, the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina has ordered Tuomey Healthcare System, Inc. (“Tuomey”) to pay over $237* million for violations of the Stark Law and False Claims Act arising from certain employment agreements between Tuomey and … Continue Reading
At first glance, Shands Healthcare’s (“Shands”) agreement to pay $26 million to the federal government and the State of Florida appears to be like all the other recently reported health care fraud settlements of whistleblower complaints. Upon closer inspection however, one significant difference stands out: the relator who initially brought the case against Shands was … Continue Reading
The interplay between attorney-client privilege and in-house counsel communications has been on many people’s minds since the Middle District of Florida’s decision late last year in US ex rel. Baklid-Kunz v. Halifax Hospital Med. Ctr. In that case, the court rejected a hospital’s privilege arguments and required production of hundreds of its in-house counsel and compliance officer’s emails … Continue Reading
