The United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas recently released a noteworthy FCA opinion, one that includes a key ruling on the use of statistical sampling and extrapolation. In United States v. Vista Hospice Care, Inc., No. 3:07-CV-00604-M, 2016 WL 3449833 (N.D. Tex. June 20, 2016), the relator brought claims alleging, among other things, that the defendant violated the False Claims Act by certifying patients as eligible for hospice, when the patients were not terminally ill or their records lacked documentation supporting the requisite six-month life expectancy prognosis.  In deciding a motion to strike and a motion for summary judgment, the district court issued two very favorable defense rulings.

Statistical Sampling/Extrapolation

The relator relied on the expert testimony of a hospice physician, who reviewed 291 patient files and concluded that a large portion of the patients were not eligible for hospice for at least some of the days. An expert statistician, in turn, extrapolated from the physician’s testimony to conclude that defendants had submitted false claims on approximately 12,000 patients.Continue Reading Court Rejects Relator’s Use of Statistical Sampling