The FCA continues to be the federal government’s primary civil enforcement tool for investigating allegations that healthcare providers or government contractors defrauded the federal government. In the coming weeks, we will take a closer look at recent legal developments involving the FCA. This week, we examine the FCA’s public disclosure bar and recent cases considering whether disclosures are sufficient to bar FCA claims.

Courts have continued to clarify the requirements for a relator to be considered an original source, and thus exempted from the public disclosure bar, under the FCA’s pre-PPACA and post-PPACA versions. In these cases, courts have typically focused on the requirements that a relator have “direct and independent knowledge of the information on which the allegations are based” (pre-PPACA) and “knowledge that is independent of and materially adds to the publicly disclosed allegations or transactions” (post-PPACA).Continue Reading FCA Deeper Dive: Original Sources under the FCA’s Public Disclosure Bar

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of a relator’s qui tam lawsuit under the FCA’s public disclosure bar and, in doing so, concluded that the ACA’s amendments to the public disclosure bar created grounds for dismissal for failure to state a claim, rather than for lack of jurisdiction.  In U.S. ex rel. Osheroff v. Humana, Inc., the relator alleged that various Florida-based clinics and health insurers violated the FCA through the provision of various services to patients as kickbacks designed to induce and influence the patients’ healthcare decision-making.  Defendants pointed to allegations in state court litigation and news media as publicly disclosing the allegations upon which the relator based his qui tam lawsuit, and the district court agreed.
Continue Reading Eleventh Circuit Refines Public Disclosure Bar Standards