Public Disclosure Bar and Pleading Deficiencies Doom Tennessee FCA Case
In February, the District Court for the Western District of Tennessee dismissed a relator’s qui tam FCA suit alleging that the defendants had continued the “exact scheme” previously alleged in U.S. ex rel. Deming v. Jackson-Madison Cty. Gen. Hosp., et al. involving allegations of medically unnecessary cardiac testing and procedures.
In U.S. ex rel. Maur v. Cmty. Health Sys., Inc., et al., the defendants moved to dismiss the relator’s action on two grounds: 1) The FCA’s public disclosure bar prohibited the relator’s action, as it raised substantially the same allegations as those publicly disclosed in the Deming action. 2) The relator had failed to plead any FCA claims with the requisite particularity under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b).
