Bass, Berry & Sims attorney Taylor Chenery commented on a decision from a federal district court in Pennsylvania allowing a whistleblower’s case to proceed and rejecting the defendant’s argument that the claims at issue were barred because the allegations were previously publicly disclosed. The case involves False Claims Act (FCA) allegations against Medtronic Inc. that the company provided improper kickbacks to healthcare providers to encourage them to prescribe Medtronic devices.
“‘I thought one of the most surprising and interesting holdings was the initial holding early in the analysis that prior FCA cases did not constitute public disclosures simply because the government hadn’t intervened in the case.’ Chenery found the decision to be a very narrow reading of the public disclosure bar that would allow subsequent relators to file similar allegations. ‘The court just assumes in a non-intervened case that the government is not a party just because it didn’t intervene. Other courts have found the government is the real party in interest in an FCA case,'” Taylor said.
The full article, “Medtronic Kickback Case Moving Forward in Pennsylvania,” was published by Bloomberg BNA Health Law Resource Center on June 7, 2018, and is available online (subscription required).