George B. Breen, a Member of the Firm in the Health Care and Life Sciences and Litigation practices and Chair of the firm’s National Health Care and Life Sciences Practice Steering Committee, was quoted in FierceHealthPayer, in “After Implied Cert Ruling, Courts Will Focus on ‘Materiality,’” by Evan Sweeney.

Following is an excerpt:

“I think you’ll see lots of cases talking about what materiality means, and whether or not in certain circumstances the omission—for lack of a better word—was in fact material to the payment decision,” George Breen, an attorney with Epstein Becker & Green P.C. in the District of Columbia, told FierceHealthPayer: Antifraud.

Without a bright line interpretation, the issue of materiality is bound to be a sticking point in future FCA litigation, particularly as defendants move to dismiss claims.

“It opens the door to some litigation about what that word really means,” Breen said.

Jump to Page

Privacy Preference Center

When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.