George Breen, Chair of the firm's National Health Care and Life Sciences Practice Steering Committee, in the Washington, DC, office, was featured in a Q&A about the False Claims Act.

Following is an excerpt:

Q. What does the future hold?

A: I think you can expect an increasing number of cases being brought by relators. I think you will see states amending false claims acts and pursuing their own recoveries. The expansion of Medicaid, and false claims act liability to the new insurance exchange payments will, I think, also increase the number of cases being pursued.

Q. What companies are most at risk?

A: .....cases being pursued go well beyond pharma and medical devices. For instance, in February of this year there was a dermatologist in Florida who agreed to pay some $26.1 million to resolve false claims act allegations including that he provided services that were not medically necessary. That is reported to be the largest single settlement that had been reached with an individual provider. The government is expressing interest in individual providers, hospital systems, home health, skilled nursing facilities, hospices, etc.

Also in February, there was a $28 million jury verdict in federal court in Illinois where allegations included a claim that the facility was providing effectively worthless services, service so bad it was tantamount to providing no services at all......it gives you a sense it's not only pharma or medical device or similar organizations that ought to be concerned here.

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