Walmart successfully ended eight years of protracted litigation under the False Claims Act (“FCA”) on June 4, 2021, when the Sixth Circuit affirmed dismissal of Medicare and Medicaid fraud allegations against the major retailer. The case was first filed in February 2013. See United States ex rel. Sheoran v. Wal-Mart Stores E., No. 13-10568, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 140710, at *2 (E.D. Mich. Aug. 20,...
On March 19, 2021, a Southern District of New York judge denied a motion to dismiss a False Claims Act (“FCA”) suit alleging that Omnicare—a subsidiary of CVS Health Corp.—“dispensed drugs based on invalid prescriptions to potentially tens of thousands of individuals living at more than 3,000 residential facilities.” See United States ex rel. Bassan v. Omnicare, Inc., No. 1:15-cv-4179 (CM), 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS...
On June 20, 2019, more than six years after the case was first set into motion by the Relator, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland announced in a press release that Hart to Heart Ambulance Services, Inc. (“Hart to Heart”) settled a false claims act case—which alleged that it submitted false claims to Medicare for ambulance transports that were not medically necessary—for...
On Tuesday, March 19, the Supreme Court considered whether to extend the FCA’s alternate 10-year statute of limitations to cases in which the government does not intervene. The case, Cochise Consultancy Inc. v. United States, ex rel. Hunt, involves a whistleblower’s qui tam action alleging that two defense contractors defrauded the government. The case centers on the FCA’s two statutes of limitations. One allows lawsuits...
The False Claims Act (FCA) allows plaintiffs/relators to bring qui tam actions, in which the government may then elect to intervene. The FCA also provides that “[t]he Government may settle a [qui tam] action with the defendant notwithstanding the objections of the person initiating the action if the court determines, after a hearing, that the proposed settlement is fair, adequate, and reasonable under all the...
A recently unsealed False Claims Act case in Maine alleges a roof contractor knowingly failed to use materials that complied with the prime contracts for renovation of government buildings. According to the complaint filed by the United States in Emery v. Roof Systems of Maine Inc., 2:14-cv-00483-DBH (D. Me.), Roof Systems of Maine worked as a subcontractor at a National Guard installation at the former...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit recently vacated an award of settlement proceeds to relators of several related qui tam actions because the district court failed to make factual findings as to whether the government’s settlement with one of the defendants was based on claims that factually overlapped with the claims brought by the relators. Rille v. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, et al., No....
