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 Family Practice News, in “Supreme Court Offers Mixed Take on False Claims Liability,” by Alicia Gallegos. The article discusses how the Supreme Court’s decision on Universal Health Services, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Escobar may affect providers.
Following is an excerpt:
The opinion includes language that is both helpful and harmful to physicians, according to health law attorneys. On the one hand, the justices supported the implied certification theory, thus expanding the scope of potential liability under the FCA in certain circumstances, said George B. Breen, a Washington-based health law attorney.
“The court’s decision is significant for health care providers and suppliers that submit claims to federally funded health care programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, because the FCA remains one of the federal government’s primary enforcement tools,” Mr. Breen said in an interview. “In the court’s view, half-truths in a claim for reimbursement from a government program … [are] just as actionable as an outright lie if the failure to disclose noncompliance with a statute, regulation, or contract term makes those representations misleading half-truths.”
This article was also published in:
- Internal Medicine News
- Clinical Psychiatry News
- Pediatric News
- Cardiology News
- Emergency Medicine
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