The Supreme Court heard oral argument on Tuesday in the case of Dr. Jesse Polansky, a whistleblower who had filed a claim on behalf of the government under the False Claims Act’s qui tam provision. The Department of Justice had initially allowed Polansky to proceed with the lawsuit against a company he accused of causing millions of dollars in false Medicare bills to the government, but after several years of litigation sought to force dismissal of the case. At issue is whether and when the government has authority to force such a dismissal, with the justices on Tuesday appearing to reject Polansky’s argument that the government has no such authority as well as the government’s argument that it maintains an unfettered right to dismiss. Instead, the justices appeared focused on identifying the appropriate standard and procedure, seemingly headed toward setting a low bar for the government to clear.
The FCA’s qui tam (an abbreviation for a Latin phrase meaning “Who sues on behalf of the King as well as for himself”) provision encourages whistleblowers to file suit on behalf of the government and gives the government the opportunity to decide whether to take control of the case (referred to as “intervening”) or allow the whistleblower to proceed. DOJ has used the False Claims Act to recover more than $70 billion since 1986, much of it driven by whistleblower lawsuits and largely focused on health care and defense contracting. As the number of qui tam cases has continued to...
I learned about hantavirus misinformation this week in the same way I now learn about most public health misinformation: My followers sent it to me. Within hours of the first headlines about a han...