Public Disclosure Bar

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The FCA continues to be the federal government’s primary civil enforcement tool for investigating allegations that healthcare providers or government contractors defrauded the federal government. In the coming weeks, we will take a closer look at recent legal developments involving the FCA. This week, we examine the FCA’s public disclosure bar and recent cases considering whether disclosures are sufficient to bar FCA claims.

The FCA’s public disclosure bar prevents a relator from filing a qui tam complaint based on information previously disclosed to the public, thereby dissuading parasitic lawsuits based on publicly available information. In cases considering the scope of the public disclosure bar, courts have continued to examine the issue of how or to whom information must be disseminated in order to constitute a “public disclosure,” which often has resulted in a narrowing of the public disclosure bar’s scope in a given case. Such cases marked a shift away from decisions favorable to FCA defendants toward a more nuanced and specific application of the public disclosure bar.Continue Reading FCA Deeper Dive: When Public Disclosures Bar FCA Claims

On February 25, 2015, the Sixth Circuit reversed a district court’s decision to dismiss FCA allegations pursuant to the FCA’s public disclosure bar because the “publicity” aspect of the public disclosure bar was not satisfied.   The Sixth Circuit’s opinion became the most recent appellate decision to require disclosure beyond the government or the government’s agents or contractors to implicate the public disclosure bar.

In U.S. ex rel. Whipple v. Chattanooga-Hamilton County Hosp. Authority, OIG instituted an audit of the defendant’s billing practices in response to an anonymous complaint.  That audit led to a subsequent investigation by OIG, during which it consulted with the DOJ.  In 2009, the defendant resolved the matter through a refund to the government, and the government declined to pursue the matter further.Continue Reading Sixth Circuit Addresses the “Public” Aspect of the Public Disclosure Bar

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of a relator’s qui tam lawsuit under the FCA’s public disclosure bar and, in doing so, concluded that the ACA’s amendments to the public disclosure bar created grounds for dismissal for failure to state a claim, rather than for lack of jurisdiction.  In U.S. ex rel. Osheroff v. Humana, Inc., the relator alleged that various Florida-based clinics and health insurers violated the FCA through the provision of various services to patients as kickbacks designed to induce and influence the patients’ healthcare decision-making.  Defendants pointed to allegations in state court litigation and news media as publicly disclosing the allegations upon which the relator based his qui tam lawsuit, and the district court agreed.
Continue Reading Eleventh Circuit Refines Public Disclosure Bar Standards

From the Bass, Berry & Sims Blog Network
From the Bass, Berry & Sims Blog Network

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