As we at Morgan Lewis pride ourselves on excellent client service, we feel it is our duty to provide critical dispatches from the romantic world of healthcare fraud. Specifically, we want to highlight developments in the District of Massachusetts that may make the prospects of an amicable breakup in a federal civil False Claims Act (FCA) case with Boston federal prosecutors more remote.
On May 24, 2023, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts issued a routine press release to announce it had reached an agreement with Massachusetts Eye and Ear to resolve allegations of FCA violations.
The settlement agreement included language that should catch the attention of stakeholders in the healthcare and life sciences industries. Gone is the typical defense-friendly but most often entirely valid qualification that entering into the settlement is “[not] an admission of liability by [defendant], which expressly denies and disputes the allegations set forth in” the FCA complaint, but rather is a logical, rational business decision to “avoid the delay, uncertainty, inconvenience, and expense of protracted litigation.” In its place, Massachusetts Eye and Ear agreed to “admit, acknowledge, and accept responsibility for” certain facts constituting “Covered Conduct” that established the company’s alleged violation of the FCA.
Such factual admissions have become a staple in FCA cases in the District of Massachusetts and were first broadcast by representatives from the US...
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