On March 12, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued an important decision interpreting the “willfulness” standard necessary to find a violation of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS). The decision provides important guidance for health care and pharmaceutical organizations on what constitutes a knowing violation of the AKS and for counsel
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Ninth Circuit Denies Arbitration in a False Claims Act Case
By Melissa (Lisa) Thompson on
On September 11, 2017, the Ninth Circuit in US and State of Nevada ex rel. Welch v. My Left Foot Children’s Therapy, LLC, upheld the denial of the defendant’s motion to compel arbitration in a False Claims Act (FCA) relator case, holding that an employee-relator’s FCA claims did not fall within the scope of the arbitration agreement with her former employer. The FCA claims were based on allegations that the employer had filed fraudulent Medicaid claims.
The Court first looked to the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) in determining that interpretation of the arbitration agreement would generally be a matter of state law. Nevertheless, the Court also applied certain guiding principles of the FAA, including the rule as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court that “’questions of arbitrability must be addressed with a healthy regard for the federal policy favoring arbitration’” (quoting Moses H. Cone Mem’l Hosp. v. Mercury Constr. Corp., 460 U.S. 1, 24 (1983)).
In issuing its ruling, however, the Court did not foreclose the potential for arbitration agreements to include FCA claims within their scope.Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Denies Arbitration in a False Claims Act Case