The federal False Claims Act (FCA) remained in flux in 2022, marked by significant activity at the appellate level. DOJ’s enforcement of the FCA remained robust, headlined by a $900 million settlement with Biogen, Inc. arising out of an Anti-Kickback Statute violation in which Biogen paid outsized “speaker honoraria, speaker training fees, consulting fees and meals” to physicians as an inducement to prescribe Biogen pharmaceuticals to patients. Below are some of the year’s most significant legal developments for practitioners, government contractors, and other parties with potential False Claims Act exposure due to their receipt of government monies.
Justices Signal Support for Government’s Right to Seek Dismissal of Declined FCA Cases
In United States ex rel. Polansky v. Executive Health Resources, Inc., the Supreme Court heard oral argument on the Government’s right to seek dismissal, over a relator’s objection, of an FCA action in which the Government declined to intervene at the outset. The issues before the Court are: (1) whether the Government may seek dismissal of the action under the statutory provision in the FCA where it declines to intervene at the outset of the case; (2) whether the Government must intervene to seek dismissal; and (3) the substantive standard the Government must meet to dismiss a case over a relator’s objection. Though the Court did not clearly signal the exact mechanics of the Government’s right to dismiss, all Justices...
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. (WSMV) - A Tennessee doctor has pleaded guilty to committing millions of dollars’ worth of Medicare fraud through her Brentwood optometry practice. Helen Boerman, 48, pleaded guilt...