The US Supreme Court affirmed Friday that the Justice Department properly sought and won dismissal of a whistleblower suit accusing Executive Health Resources Inc. of violating the False Claims Act by improperly billing Medicare.
Whistleblower Jesse Polansky argued that an appeals court mistakenly backed the DOJ because the government failed to properly intervene in the case before it moved for dismissal.
Under the FCA, the DOJ may move to end a whistleblower suit, even over the whistleblower’s objection, by giving notice of a motion to dismiss and after an opportunity for a hearing on the motion.
The Supreme Court agreed with the government that the DOJ didn’t have to intervene in the case before seeking dismissal.
“Today, we hold that the Government may seek dismissal of an FCA action over a relator’s objection so long as it intervened some time in the litigation, whether at the outset or afterward,” the court said.
“We also hold that in handling such a motion, district courts should apply the rule generally governing voluntary dismissal of suits: Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a),” it said.
Polansky’s suit alleged that Executive Health, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group Inc., violated the FCA by erroneously causing hundreds of thousands of claims for medical services to be billed to Medicare at inpatient rates instead of outpatient.
The US moved for dismissal, arguing that the case would impose significant burdens on government resources, such as litigation costs,...
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