The US Supreme Court said Tuesday that it will review whether a False Claims Act whistleblower’s suit alleging that Executive Health Resources Inc. defrauded Medicare by falsely designating patient admissions should have proceeded despite the Justice Department’s opposition.
Jesse Polansky asserted that the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit erred by backing the dismissal even though the government didn’t intervene in his case before moving to dismiss it.
The government lacks any FCA dismissal authority after initially declining to intervene in a whistleblower’s case, Polansky said in his petition.
The FCA says the DOJ may move to end a whistleblower’s action that it doesn’t support, over the whistleblower’s objection, by giving notice of a motion to dismiss and an opportunity for a hearing on the motion.
The Third Circuit joined the Seventh Circuit in treating the government’s motion to dismiss as a combined motion to intervene and dismiss, the petition said. This further cemented a deeply entrenched circuit split over the the government’s FCA dismissal authority, the petition said.
“If the Supreme Court permits the government to shut down cases without any due process, fraudsters with inside ties to the government will become even richer than they are today,” said Stephen M. Kohn of Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto LLP in Washington, which...
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