Ninth Circuit Refuses to Kill Incentive Compensation Ban Whistleblower Suit





Constantine Cannon is proud to have partnered with AARP Foundation to represent AARP, AARP Foundation, Center for Medicare Advocacy, Justice in Aging, the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care, and the National Health Law Program, as amici curiae in the whistleblower-initiated case of United States ex rel. Angela Ruckh v. Salus Rehabilitation, currently on appeal before the 11th Circuit. The appeal...
Becker’s Hospital Review published Four Key Takeaways From 9th Circuit’s Resurrection of the Silingo Medicare Advantage Case, written by Constantine Cannon partner Jessica T. Moore. In the article, Ms. Moore analyzes the Ninth Circuit’s July, 2018, ruling in U.S. ex rel. Silingo v. WellPoint, Inc., a case brought by a whistleblower under the False Claims Act alleging risk adjustment fraud in Medicare’s Part C...
This week's Department of Justice "Catch of the Week" goes to New York-based medical device maker AngioDynamics, Inc. On Wednesday, the company agreed to pay $12.5 million to resolve allegations it violated the False Claims Act by making false and misleading promotional claims about the LC Bead and Perforator Vein Ablation Kit (PVAK) medical devices. Angio served as the U.S. distributor for Biocompatibles plc, the...
By Poppy Alexander
Top-level heart surgeons work in a rarified world, where few may question their medical judgment. Yet that judgment is not infallible-and its presence is not in itself a protection against False Claims Act liability. The Tenth Circuit recently held as much in United States ex rel. Polukoff v. St. Mark’s Hospital et al., finding that a doctor may be exercising medical judgment while still...
This week's Department of Justice "Catch of the Week" goes to Healogics, Inc. On Wednesday, the Florida-based operator of hundreds of wound care centers agreed to pay up to $22.5 million to settle claims it violated the False Claims Act by billing Medicare for medically unnecessary and unreasonable hyperbaric oxygen therapy. See DOJ Press Release.
Hyperbaric therapy involves breathing oxygen inside a pressurized...
By Leah Judge
Reaffirming the importance of patient plans of care, the Sixth Circuit recently held that the timing of a physician’s certification of such plans is material to the government’s decision to pay for home health services. The case marks another circuit court’s application of the materiality standard announced in Universal Health Servs., Inc. v. United States ex rel. Escobar, and serves as a rebuke...