Gibson Dunn recently published a mid-year update on the False Claims Act (FCA) collections for the first half of the year, noting that “[t]he first half of 2024 is a reminder that [the flow of enforcement] can surge at any moment, bringing with it massive settlements.” The update notes that the Department of Justice (DOJ) continues to focus on cybersecurity and has reached False Claims Act settlements across multiple industries, using various legal theories.

As we often see from FCA recoveries, most of the $1 billion in settlements involve health care and life science industry entities. Starting the year strong was a $42.5 million settlement between the DOJ and ChristianaCare, a healthcare facility operator based in Delaware. The settlement resolved claims that the company provided ancillary service providers (i.e., nurse practitioners and physician assistants) to help with patients as an inducement to non-employee physicians to refer patients to the company’s hospitals.

That same day, Florida non-profit cancer treatment and research center, the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute Hospital, agreed to pay $19.5 million, resolving allegations that it billed federal health care programs for items and services used in clinical trial research that it should have billed to non-government sponsors.

In mid-January, Columbus LTACH d/b/a Silver Lake Hospital, a long-term care hospital based in New Jersey, reached an $18.6 million settlement to resolve FCA...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiwwFBVV95cUxPRVRtd1RjRGZuZ1VxSWxvWjh6...