FCA UPDATE
FCA UPDATE
Exploring Recent Developments in False Claims Act Litigation, Enforcement and Compliance
FCA UPDATE
Exploring Recent Developments in False Claims Act Litigation, Enforcement and Compliance
Anti-Kickback Statute / Stark Law
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HHS Proposes Substantial Changes to the Stark Law and the Anti-Kickback Statute Regulations

By , , , , and on Oct 9, 2019
Posted In ,

On October 9, 2019, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published proposed changes to the physician self-referral law (Stark Law) (Stark Proposed Rule) and the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) and the Beneficiary Inducement Civil Monetary Penalty Law (CMPL) (AKS Proposed Rule).

The proposed rules represent some of the most significant potential changes to these laws in the last decade. HHS Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan said that they “would be a historic reform of how healthcare is regulated in America.” This On the Subject provides a high-level overview of key provisions in the proposed rules. More in-depth analysis will follow at our Regulatory Sprint Resource Page.

The “Sprint”

The Stark Law and AKS Proposed Rules have been promulgated as part of HHS’s “Regulatory Sprint to Coordinated Care,” which was launched in 2018 with the goal of reducing regulatory burden and incentivizing coordinated care. As part of this initiative, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) began scrutinizing a variety of long-standing regulatory requirements and prohibitions to determine whether they unnecessarily hinder the innovative arrangements that policymakers are otherwise hoping to see develop. The agencies took the step of formally seeking public input on this topic by issuing requests for information (RFIs) in June and August 2018. More information about HHS’s Sprint and the RFIs is available on our Regulatory Sprint Resource Page.

The Proposals

The Proposed Rules reflect a coordinated effort between CMS and OIG to address various challenges to the transition to value-based care. Both agencies clearly recognize that the two laws often operate in tandem, but they also emphasize that they are distinct and separate enforcement vehicles. Thus, in some instances OIG’s proposals may be more restrictive that CMS’s, and both agencies state that the AKS may act as a “backstop” to protect against arrangements that meet a Stark Law exception but are nonetheless considered abusive. CMS also proposes to remove compliance with the AKS as a requirement from several Stark Law exceptions, further underscoring the laws’ separateness.

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Third Circuit Perpetuates Tuomey’s Controversial Stark Law “Volume or Value” Standard

By , , and on Oct 2, 2019
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In U.S. ex rel. J. William Bookwalter, III, M.D. et al. v. UPMC et al., the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit endorsed two controversial interpretations of the Stark Law’s “volume or value” standard, known as the correlation theory and the practice “loss” theory. Specifically, the court held that the relators had made out a plausible allegation of an indirect compensation arrangement between surgeons and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC)-affiliated hospitals. The court held that the relators were entitled to proceed to discovery because of the correlation between the amount of the productivity-based compensation paid to the surgeons and the volume of the surgeons’ referrals for inpatient hospital services (e.g., operating room and hospital room and board). Repeatedly invoking the concept of “where there is smoke, there might be fire,” the court also stated that the fact that at least three of the surgeons allegedly received compensation in excess of the hospital’s collections for their professional services supported the plausibility of the relators’ allegation that the compensation “takes into account” the volume or value of the physicians’ referrals to the hospitals.

If this holding sounds familiar, that is because it is based on the same logic advanced by the Fourth Circuit in U.S. ex rel. Drakeford v. Tuomey, the infamous Stark Law/False Claims Act (FCA) case that first put the hospital industry on notice that common productivity-based compensation to hospital-employed surgeons could implicate the Stark Law. While distinguishable from Tuomey, UPMC has important implications for hospitals and health systems that employ surgeons.

Summary of Allegations and Procedural History

In UPMC, the plaintiffs alleged that the UPMC hospitals where the neurosurgeons performed cases each had an indirect compensation arrangement with the surgeons and thus triggered the Stark Law’s prohibitions against referrals and the associated Medicare claims for reimbursement. Based on this alleged Stark Law violation, the plaintiffs claimed that the hospitals violated the FCA by submitting false claims for hospital services referred by the surgeons. The surgeons were paid a base salary and a productivity bonus of $45 per work RVU above a specified target. If a surgeon did not hit the target, her base compensation would be reduced the following year. The government had intervened in and settled another aspect of the case, but declined to intervene on these allegations.

The compensation arrangement between the surgeons and the UPMC hospitals was evaluated as a potential indirect compensation arrangement because the surgeons were employed by UPMC-affiliated medical practices, not directly by the UPMC hospitals. For Stark Law purposes, an indirect compensation arrangement requires, among other things, that the compensation paid to the physician “varies with” or “takes into account” the volume or value of the physician’s referrals to the hospital. In this case, the plaintiffs alleged that the compensation greatly exceeded fair market value and that at least three surgeons were paid more than the hospital collected for their services. The plaintiffs also asserted that “[e]very time . . . [the surgeons] performed a surgery or other procedure at the UPMC Hospitals, the Physicians made [...]

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Remuneration? Not If It’s Fair Market Value, Says Eleventh Circuit

By and on Sep 27, 2019
Posted In

Bingham v. HCA, Inc., a recent Eleventh Circuit case, highlights the centrality of fair market value to Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) analyses. This decision is significant for several reasons and we expect to see Bingham cited by many defendants in future False Claims Act cases. The case is also a reminder that the current regulatory and enforcement environment can result in litigation over arrangements with fair market value payments that involve little, or no, compliance concerns.

One of the most fundamental elements of managing risk under the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) is ensuring remuneration is consistent with fair market value. A recent Eleventh Circuit case highlights the centrality of fair market value to AKS analyses. See Bingham v. HCA, Inc., Case No. 1:13-cv-23671 (11th Cir. 2019). In Bingham, the court held that proving fair market value is an essential element for a relator to survive summary judgment and that relators must plead a lack of fair market value consistent with the Rule 9(b) particularity requirement to allege improper remuneration exists in the first place. The court’s holding is significant for two reasons: (1) it underscores that the plaintiff bears a burden in pleading and proving lack of fair market value, and (2) it suggests that fair market value compensation may be an absolute defense to an AKS allegation. We expect to see Bingham cited by many defendants in future False Claims Act cases, and we will be watching to see how the Eleventh Circuit and other courts continue to evaluate these concepts.

Case Background and Procedural History

We note that it took five years of costly litigation for HCA to reach this decision. Relator, who has filed a number of cases against hospital systems over the years concerning real estate deals, filed his first amended complaint on August 15, 2014. Relator alleged that HCA, through its Centerpoint Medical Center and Aventura Hospital facilities, violated the FCA due to improper space rental arrangements with physicians. Relator alleged that HCA allegedly paid a medical office building developer improper subsidies and that the developer passed the value of these subsidies onto physician tenants who signed 10-year leases through low initial lease rates, restricted use waivers, operating cash-flow shares and free office improvements. Relator also alleged HCA provided direct remuneration to physician tenants at the Aventura facility, including free parking, subsidized common area maintenance, free use permissions and below market rent.

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Dash to Digital Health? How the Regulatory Sprint to Coordinated Care Could Expand Access to Care

By on Jul 26, 2019
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Certain long-standing laws, such as the civil monetary penalty provision prohibiting patient inducements, have hampered providers’ ability to fully leverage remote patient monitoring and other telehealth tools. Many stakeholders are hoping that developments in the Regulatory Sprint to Coordinated Care will begin the rulemaking process to enable greater access to digital health and virtual care products.

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched the Regulatory Sprint to Coordinated Care in 2018 with the goal of reducing regulatory burden and incentivizing coordinated care. As part of this initiative, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and other agencies are scrutinizing a variety of long-standing regulatory requirements and prohibitions to determine whether they unnecessarily hinder the innovative arrangements policy-makers are otherwise hoping to see develop. While regulations such as the civil monetary penalty prohibition on patient inducements have significant benefits for reducing fraud and abuse, they can also make it difficult for health systems to deploy digital tools that help patients track, monitor and share health data with their providers.

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Questions Remain for the EHR Industry as a Second EHR Vendor, Greenway Health, Settles False Claims Act Allegations

By , and on Feb 26, 2019
Posted In , , ,

DOJ announced on February 6, 2019, the Settlement Agreement resolving allegations in DOJ’s Complaint that Greenway caused its customers to submit false Medicare and Medicaid claims for payments under the EHR Incentive Programs in violation of the FCA and that it paid illegal kickbacks to current customers to recommend Greenway products (that are used to generate incentive payments or avoid penalties under the EHR Incentive Programs) to new customers. Under the Settlement Agreement, Greenway agreed to pay approximately $57 million to resolve the allegations without admitting liability. Greenway also entered into a five-year CIA with strict compliance oversight, reporting obligations and costly obligations to provide the latest version of Greenway’s EHR software to each of Greenway’s current customers at no additional charge.

This settlement comes nearly two years after eCW entered into a groundbreaking settlement with DOJ. At that time, we wondered whether it may be a sign of increasing FCA actions against vendors of EHR technology (CEHRT) certified through the health information technology (HIT) certification program of the Office of the National Coordinator of HIT (ONC). Statements by the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont, Christina E. Nolan, in the DOJ press release discussing the Greenway settlement seem to answer that question very directly in the affirmative. She says that “EHR companies should consider themselves on notice.” It is notable that, unlike the eCW case, the Greenway case was not initiated by a relator, but pursued by DOJ directly. In light of the government’s continued focus on vendors of EHR technology used to earn payments or avoid penalties for failing to succeed under the EHR Incentive Programs (or their successor value-based payment programs), HIT vendors should:

  • Take care to accurately and transparently demonstrate their software during HIT certification program testing
  • Review, and consider improvements to, their systems and other procedures for identifying, responding to and correcting software design and quality issues that call into question EHR software’s conformity to applicable EHR certification criteria or present patient safety or clinician usability risks; and
  • Review existing customer reference, referral and marketing arrangements for compliance with the Anti-Kickback Statute.

Click here to read the full post.



HHS Proposes to Revise Discount Safe Harbor Protections for Drug Rebates

By and on Feb 7, 2019
Posted In ,

On January 31, 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a notice of proposed rulemaking (the Proposed Rule) as part of ongoing administration drug pricing reform efforts. The Proposed Rule would modify a regulatory provision that had previously protected certain pharmaceutical manufacturer rebates from criminal prosecution and financial penalties under the federal Anti-Kickback Statute.

Specifically, the Proposed Rule would exclude from “safe harbor” protection rebates and other discounts on prescription pharmaceutical products offered by pharmaceutical manufacturers to Medicare Part D plan sponsors or Medicaid Managed Care Organizations (MCOs), unless the price reduction is required by law (such as rebates required under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program). The proposed exclusion would apply to rebates offered directly to Part D plan sponsors and Medicaid MCOs, as well as those negotiated by or paid through a pharmacy benefit manager (PBM). HHS stated that it does not intend for the revisions in this Proposed Rule to negatively impact protection of prescription pharmaceutical product discounts offered to other entities such as wholesalers, hospitals, physicians, pharmacies and third party payors in other federal health care programs. The proposed effective date of this regulatory modification is January 1, 2020, although HHS has sought comments regarding whether this allows sufficient time for parties to restructure existing arrangements.

Click here to read the full post. 



Insys Announces Settlement-in-Principle with DOJ Over Alleged Subsys Kickback Scheme

By and on Sep 13, 2018
Posted In , , , , ,

Last month, Insys Therapeutics, Inc. announced that it reached a settlement-in-principle with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to settle claims that it knowingly offered and paid kickbacks to induce physicians and nurse practitioners to prescribe the drug Subsys and that it knowingly caused Medicare and other federal health care programs to pay for non-covered uses of the drug. The drugmaker agreed to pay at least $150 million and up to $75 million more based on “contingent events.” According to a status report filed by DOJ, the tentative agreement is subject to further approval and resolution of related issues. The settlement does not resolve state civil fraud and consumer protection claims against the company.

The consolidated lawsuits subject to the settlement allege that Insys violated the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute in connection with its marketing of Subsys, a sub-lingual spray form of the powerful opioid fentanyl. The Food and Drug Administration has approved Subsys for, and only for, the treatment of persistent breakthrough pain in adult cancer patients who are already receiving, and tolerant to, around-the-clock opioid therapy. The government’s complaint alleges that Insys provided kickbacks in the form of arrangements disguised as otherwise permissible activities. Specifically, it alleges that Insys instituted a sham speaker program, paying thousands of dollars in fees to practitioners for speeches “attended only by the prescriber’s own office staff, by close friends who attended multiple presentations, or by people who were not medical professionals and had no legitimate reason for attending.” Many of these speeches were held at restaurants and did not include any substantive presentation. Insys also allegedly provided jobs for prescribers’ friends and relatives, visits to strip clubs, and lavish meals and entertainment. (more…)



OIG Seeks Comments on Anti-Kickback Statute and Beneficiary Inducements as Part of its Regulatory Sprint to Coordinated Care

By , , , , , and on Aug 27, 2018
Posted In ,

On August 24, 2018, the Office of Inspector General (OIG), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a request for information, seeking input from the public on potential new safe harbors to the Anti-Kickback Statute and exceptions to the beneficiary inducement prohibition in the Civil Monetary Penalty (CMP) Law to remove impediments to care coordination and value-based care. The broad scope of the laws involved and the wide-ranging nature of OIG’s request underscore the potential significance of anticipated regulatory reforms for virtually every healthcare stakeholder.

The request for information follows a similar request by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published on June 25, 2018, regarding the physician self-referral law, commonly known as the Stark Law. Both of these requests are part of HHS’s “Regulatory Sprint to Coordinated Care,” which is being spearheaded by the Deputy Secretary as an effort to address regulatory obstacles to coordinated care.

The Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits offering, paying, soliciting or receiving anything of value in exchange for or to induce a person to make referrals for items and services that are payable by a federal health care program, or to purchase, lease, order or arrange for or recommend purchasing, leasing or ordering any services or items that may be covered by a federal health care program. The beneficiary inducement prohibition in the CMP Law authorizes the imposition of civil money penalties for paying or offering any remuneration to a Medicare or Medicaid beneficiary that the offeror knows or should know is likely to influence the beneficiary’s selection of a particular provider or supplier of Medicare or Medicaid payable items. Many value-based payment models implicate these statutes, and the OIG acknowledges that they are widely viewed as impediments to arrangements that would advance coordinated care.

While the request for information arises in the context of a concerted focus on care coordination and value-based payment, the request is wide-ranging and effectively invites stakeholders to provide comments on a broad range of potential issues under both the Anti-Kickback Statute and the beneficiary inducement prohibition. The OIG solicits comments across four general categories: (1) promoting care coordination and value-based care; (2) beneficiary engagement, including beneficiary incentives and cost-sharing waivers; (3) other regulatory topics, including feedback on current fraud and abuse waivers, cybersecurity-related items and services, and new exceptions required by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018; and (4) the intersection of the Stark Law and the Anti-Kickback Statute.

The OIG encourages individuals and organizations who previously submitted comments to CMS in response to its request for information on the Stark Law to also submit comments directly to OIG, even where those comments may be duplicative, to ensure they are considered by OIG as it exercises its independent authority with respect to the Anti-Kickback Statute and CMP Law.

Comments are due by October 26, 2018.



Circuit Court Affirms Payments for Referrals Made to Employees are Protected by the AKS Safe Harbor

By and on Aug 24, 2018
Posted In

On August 7, 2018, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a ruling by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida dismissing a qui tam suit against the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Inc. (AHF), finding that the payments made to AHF employees for referring patients to AHF were protected by the employment safe harbor of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS).

In Jack Carrel, et al. v. AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the relator claimed that AHF, a nonprofit organization that provides medical services to patients with HIV/AIDS, paid kickbacks to employees in exchange for referring HIV-positive patients for health care services billed to federal health care programs in violation of the AKS and both the Florida and federal False Claims Acts (FCA). The relators, each former AHF directors or managers, specifically cited two allegedly representative false claims in which an employee was paid $100 for referring patients to AHF for completing follow up clinical services that were billed to the Ryan White Program. The Department of Justice and the State of Florida declined to intervene.

In response to AHF’s initial motion to dismiss on May 8, 2015, the district court dismissed all but two of the relators’ claims for lack of particularity, but permitted the claims related to payments to employees for referrals to proceed into discovery. In June 2017, after the conclusion of discovery, the district court granted summary judgment to AHF on the remaining two claims based on the applicability of employee safe harbor. Under the AKS employee safe harbor (42 U.S.C. § § 1320a-7b(b)(3)(B); 42 C.F.R. 1001.152(i)), the definition of “remuneration” excludes “any amount paid by an employer to an employee, who has a bona fide employment relationship with the employer, for employment in the furnishing of any item or service for which payment may be made in whole or in part under Medicare, Medicaid or other Federal health care programs.”  (more…)



HHS Will Soon Seek Public Comment on Anti-Kickback Statute Reform

By on Jul 23, 2018
Posted In ,

During a July 17, 2018, hearing before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan testified about HHS’ efforts to review and address obstacles that longstanding fraud and abuse laws pose to shifting the Medicare payment system to a value-based, coordinated care payment system. Deputy Secretary Hargan confirmed that the agency is looking at regulatory reforms to both the physician self-referral law (Stark Law) and the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) as part of HHS’ “Regulatory Sprint to Coordinate Care.”

According to Hargan’s testimony, “the goal of the sprint is to remove regulatory barriers to coordinated care while ensuring patient safety. We want to genuinely engage stakeholders in this effort, and solicit feedback at each stage—but this is a sprint, not a jog. These words were chosen specifically because we want to fix, as quickly as possible, the regulatory processes that have increased provider burden.”

As part of this Sprint, in June the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a broad Stark Law Request for Information (RFI) that solicited public comments on how the Stark Law impedes care coordination and how Stark Law exceptions could be modified or create to promote such coordination as well as on how other exceptions may require regulatory change to reduce regulatory burden. Comments to the Stark Law RFI are due August 24.  We previously reported on the Stark Law RFI here.

In his testimony, Hargan stated that HHS is also looking at the AKS and its intersection with the Stark Law based on feedback from providers who find it “very difficult if not impossible to understand” how to comply with both laws.  Hargan described a four-agency task force that is working together to examine obstacles to coordinate care related to the Stark Law, the AKS, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)  and rules under 42 CFR Part 2 related to opioid and substance abuse disorder treatment.  This task force is composed of CMS, the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG), the HHS Office of Civil Rights, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to “coordinate amongst themselves to facilitate a coordinated care system” to “reduce duplication, overlap and contradictions” in regulations and “ensure regulatory requirements are aligned.”  As part of this effort, Hargan indicated that HHS would soon issue an RFI on AKS reforms as part of the Sprint.

HHS has already begun exploring changes to the AKS regarding drug pricing.  On July 18, 2018, OIG sent a proposed rule to the Office of Management and Budget entitled “Removal Of Safe Harbor Protection for Rebates to Plans or PBMs Involving Prescription Pharmaceuticals and Creation of New Safe Harbor Protection.”  While the text of the proposed rule is not available at this time, the rule is expected to propose revisions to the AKS discount safe harbor to scale back or exclude rebates from drug manufacturers.



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