- 7. Mai 2023
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- Category: Allgemein
These arrangements allegedly also used long-term non-competition covenants to lock in patient referrals for the centers; non-fair market value space leases for dialysis centers where there was a landlord physician referral source; and. General Description of Medicare and Medicaid Claim Systems. Previously, Martin was a Direct or, Acute Maket Development Wbd at Fresenius Medical Care North America. . 25). Flanagan v. Fresenius Medical Care Holdings, Inc. Martin Flanagan and United States of America, FRESENIUS MEDICAL CARE HOLDINGS, INC. doing business as Fresenius Medical Care North America, US District Court for the District of Massachusetts. . The qui tam action at issue was United States ex rel. Chief Judge F. Dennis Saylor, IV assigned to case. any good, facility, service, or item for which payment may be made in whole or in part under a Federal health care program shall be guilty of a felony. (Id. Flanagan v. Fresenius Medical Care Holdings, Inc. FRESENIUS MEDICAL CARE HOLDINGS, INC., d/b/a Fresenius Medical Care North America, CIVIL CASE docketed. Attorneys admitted Pro Hac Vice must have an individual upgraded PACER account, not a shared firm account, to electronically file in the District of Massachusetts. Mar 17, 2023 11:00am. Attorneys admitted Pro Hac Vice must have an individual upgraded PACER account, not a shared firm account, to electronically file in the District of Massachusetts. 167-307). As to joint-venture agreements, the complaint again alleges in general terms that all claims submitted by facilities with joint-venture partners are false claims. (Id. (Attachments: #1 Affidavit Certificate of W. Scott Simmer in Support of Motion for Admission Pro Hac Vice)(Sullivan, Christopher) (Entered: 11/22/2021), Docket(#12) NOTICE of Appearance by Christopher P. Sullivan on behalf of Martin Flanagan (Sullivan, Christopher) (Entered: 11/18/2021), Docket(#11) Chief Judge F. Dennis Saylor, IV: ELECTRONIC ORDER entered granting #6 Motion for Leave to Appear Pro Hac Vice Added James F. Bennett. Westmoreland v. Amgen, 707 F.Supp.2d 123, 130 (D. Mass. Appearance form, Docketing Statement, and Transcript Report/Order form due 04/19/2023. 02-11738, 2013 WL 682740, at *5 (D. Mass. 12(b)(6) and for failure to allege fraud with particularity as required by Fed.R.Civ.P. The CKD complaint therefore contained the essential facts alleged here, thus barring the allegations contained in the amended complaint. 249 (NANI) (All . 242-55 (NANI in Illinois); id. Relator's allegations here describe the same essential scheme and do not materially add to those allegations. Second, it alleges that FMCNA engaged in improper remuneration relationships with physicians who served as medical directors in its outpatient clinics in five ways: by selecting medical directors based on their expected and historical referrals; by paying them above-market compensation to reward referrals; by making no effort to report or verify their hours; by tracking their referrals to make sure they were not making referrals to competitors; and by requiring them to sign onerous noncompete agreements to lock them into their arrangements with FMCNA. (Id. (Id. 30-31). Allegations concerning pre-merger conduct cannot be said to have disclosed post-merger conduct. WebA division of Fresenius Medical Care North America, Azura Vascular Care partners with dedicated, highly skilled physicians and surgeons, providing opportunities for practice Attorneys admitted Pro Hac Vice must have an individual upgraded PACER account, not a shared firm account, to electronically file in the District of Massachusetts. The Court has previously determined that the portion of the amended complaint that alleges claims arising out of the joint-venture agreements and the provision of free services to physicians will be dismissed for failure to comply with the pre-suit requirements of the False Claims Act. See Id. 2016) (citing Duxbury I, 579 F.3d at 29). . (McManus, Caetlin) (Entered: 11/02/2021), Docket(#9) ELECTRONIC NOTICE of Case Reassignment. Martin L. Flanagan is a businessperson who has been at the helm of 13 different companies. Res., 162 F.3d 195, 200 (2d Cir. The critical question is whether the complaint meets the exacting standard for FCA claims required by law. This action is taken to insure the parties receive timely notice of the properly assigned presiding judge and is without prejudice to consideration by the Court as a whole whether Local Rule 40.1 should be amended in some fashion to eliminate any further misunderstanding by the Clerks Office. It also provides a very limited amount of statistical evidence to attempt to bolster those allegations. By contrast, here the statements in defendant's securities filings concerning medical-director agreements do not even convey the possibility that those agreements might violate the law. The complaint also alleges that Fresenius regularly entered into a variety of problematic arrangements with nephrologists and nephrology group practices intended to secure patient referrals for Fresenius wholly-owned and joint venture outpatient dialysis centers, including: Many of the allegations contained in the Complaint of inappropriate physician arrangements are similar, in many regards, to the allegations contained in whistleblower David Barbettas complaint filed against DaVita in federal district court in 2009. Care Holdings, Civil Action 21-11627-FDS (D. Mass. Defendant correctly contends that the initial complaint did not contain any allegations concerning unlawful joint-venture agreements, or the provision of free services to hospitals, physicians, and patients. they [therefore] violated the FCA's filing and service requirements. Wilson, 750 F.3d at 120. Instead, it alleges that FMCNA paid kickbacks for referrals on a widespread basis, and that therefore all claims for payment that it submitted to the government were false. See Kelly, 827 F.3d at 15 (It may not be irrational to infer that, given [the allegations of the fraudulent scheme], some false claims . claims . (McDonagh, Christina). However, even assuming compliance with those requirements, the claims concerning joint-venture agreements would be barred in any event. 3730(e)(4)(B). As to each, it provides some specifics as to the scheme (such as referral trends and medical-director compensation levels). 17). Martin Flanagan United States of America Defendant FRESENIUS MEDICAL CARE HOLDINGS, INC. doing business as Fresenius Medical Care North America The U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday it joined a whistle-blower lawsuit against Fresenius Medical Care AG, the world's biggest dialysis care company, on claims that it defrauded Medicare. The remaining six paragraphs describing the alleged scheme consisted of an introductory paragraph (Compl. no person other than the Government may intervene or bring a related action based on the facts underlying the pending action. 31 U.S.C. And the best part of all, documents in their CrowdSourced Library are FREE! (Id. . Rule 9(b) may be satisfied where, although some questions remain unanswered, the complaint as a whole is sufficiently particular to pass muster under the FCA. U.S. ex rel. The portions of the claims based on those allegations will therefore be dismissed for failing to comply with the FCA's pre-suit requirements. (Id. On February 5, 2021 a long-time former Fresenius Medical Care North America (Fresenius) employee, Martin Flanagan, filed a qui tam relator amended 2014), the First Circuit affirmed the denial of a motion to amend the complaint a third time. (Id. were false.); id. 1320a-7b(g); Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Pub. A variety of hospitals, nephrologists and nephrology group practices have been specifically identified in the Complaint. . 368-74). See U.S. ex rel. . The public-disclosure bar seeks to prevent parasitic qui tam actions in which relators, rather than bringing to light independently discovered information of fraud, simply feed off of previous disclosures of public fraud. United States ex rel. 40). . 110-11). Finally, the complaint alleges that medical directors were required to sign agreements containing non-competition provisions in order to preclude any medical director and those in the same practice group from engaging in any remunerative relationship with another dialysis company. 3730(e)(4)(B) (2006). The second question is whether there is an exception to the first-to-file bar that would allow relator's pre-2010 claims to survive. 25) and five paragraphs addressing how the scheme resulted in false claims (Id. 3.06 avg rating 31 ratings published 2005. I understand that the relevant personnel have since received training to avoid such errors in the future. were false.); id. (Id. 97-106). (McDonagh, Christina). Because he did not present those new claims to the government, that portion of the amended complaint alleging false claims based on that conduct will be dismissed. In other words, an AKS violation that results in a federal health care payment is a per se false claim under the FCA. Guilfoile v. Shields, 913 F.3d 178, 190 (1st Cir. WebView the profiles of professionals named "Martin Flanagan" on LinkedIn. 5266, 5289). CHAMPVA, which is administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, is a health-care program for families of veterans with 100% service-connected disabilities and provides ESRD benefits to covered beneficiaries. (Id. for money or property presented to an officer, employee, or agent of the United States. Id. Defendant next contends that the remaining FCA claims in the amended complaint are barred by the public-disclosure bar of the statute, 31 U.S.C. Finally, the complaint alleges that FMCNA entered into joint-venture agreements with physicians in order to induce referrals to the joint-venture clinic. 343). Currently, Mr. Flanagan is President, Chief Executive Officer & Director at Invesco Ltd. Mr. Flanagan is also Chairman at Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and on the board of 19 other companies. As to the alleged scheme to provide other services to hospitals, the complaint alleges the following: As to the scheme to provide free or below-cost practice-management services, the complaint alleges the following: As noted, despite its length and detail, the description of the fraudulent scheme set out in the complaint, without more, is insufficient to state a claim under the False Claims Act. Compl. 292-307 (practices in Washington state)). Martin Flanagan is a Director, National of Acute Dialysis Services at Fresenius Medical Care North America based in Waltham, Massachusetts. But whatever the merits of that argument may be, the law requires more. Winkelman v. CVS Caremark Corp., 827 F.3d 201, 208 (1st Cir. Co., Ltd., 842 F.3d 125, 130 (1st Cir. 6:22-CV-03192 | 2022-07-28. Accordingly, [f]ailure to comply with these mandatory threshold requirements warrants dismissal of the qui tam complaint with prejudice. United States ex rel. Nor does it provide any representative or sample claims. . ESRD expenditures by Medicare exceed $40 billion annually. v. Balfour Beatty Infrastructure, Inc., 2014 WL 2611312, at *2 (N.D. Cal. That is, [f]actual allegations must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level . Heineman-Guta v. Guidant Corp., 718 F.3d 28, 35-37 (1st Cir. Gagne v. City of Worcester, 565 F.3d 40, 45 (1st Cir. As the Chair of the Local Rules Committee when the relevant rules were adopted, see generally L.R. The complaint alleges that certain medical practices, such as Diablo and Balboa, benefited financially from medical-director agreements and joint-venture agreements with FMCNA, that in return they referred patients to FMCNA facilities, and as a result all of their claims for government reimbursement were false. (Id. The complaint describes a culture of doing whatever it takes to enter into hospital contracts to secure patient referrals for Fresenius outpatient dialysis centers. The complaint provides a detailed account of Fresenius acute care dialysis management business and alleges that it systematically used acute care dialysis management contracts with hospitals as loss leaders to secure patient referrals for Fresenius outpatient dialysis centers in violation of the FCA and AKS. (Id.). Paperback. Certainly it would not be irrational to conclude that the presence of kickbacks taints the entire payment process, so that 100% of the claims may be deemed to have been caused by the violation. 40. 257 (Indiana) (All such claims . UniCourt uses cookies to improve your online experience, for more information please see our Privacy Policy. I understand that the relevant personnel have since received training to avoid such errors in the future. . Third, defendant contends that relevant public disclosures occurred in multiple SEC filings by FMCNA. According to the complaint, [f]or this reason, claims submitted to the state Medicaid agencies are presented to the federal government within the meaning of the [False Claims Act]. (Id.). Jason S. Greis at 312.624.6412 orjgreis@beneschlaw.com. (Am. 3730(e)(4)(A). (Woodlock, Douglas) (Entered: 11/02/2021), (#7) NOTICE of Appearance by Abraham R. George on behalf of United States of America (George, Abraham) (Entered: 10/18/2021), (#6) MOTION for Leave to Appear Pro Hac Vice for admission of James F. Bennett Filing fee: $ 100, receipt number AMADC-9005666 by Fresenius Medical Care Holdings, Inc.. (Attachments: #1 Affidavit Certification of James F. Bennett)(Durant, Maria) (Entered: 10/13/2021), (#5) MOTION for Leave to Appear Pro Hac Vice for admission of Megan S. Heinsz Filing fee: $ 100, receipt number AMADC-9005610 by Fresenius Medical Care Holdings, Inc.. (Attachments: #1 Affidavit Certification of Megan S. Heinsz)(Durant, Maria) (Entered: 10/13/2021), (#2) Case transferred in from District of Maryland; Case Number 14-cv-00665-GLR. 332-75). 84). (Id. Make your practice more effective and efficient with Casetexts legal research suite. CEO Martin Flanagan still sees a growth opportunity in Chinaand a big risk in Bitcoin. These filings and docket sheets should not be considered findings of fact or liability, nor do they necessarily reflect the view of Justia. 19). 35). To strike a balance between encouraging whistle-blowing and discouraging opportunistic behavior, the FCA contains a public-disclosure bar. Id. (Attachments: #1 Docket Sheet from District of Maryland, #2 Docket Entries 1-30, #3 Docket Entries 31-50, #4 Docket Entries 51-56, #5 Docket Entries 58-74) (Jones, Sherry) Modified on 10/7/2021 to correct docket text. Paperback. (Id. FMCNA tracked the referrals recorded as part of the Bridge Program. The third, and perhaps most difficult, issue is whether the amended complaint pleads fraud with sufficient particularity to meet the requirements of Fed.R.Civ.P. Moreover, referral sources were routinely permitted to own more than 40% of the joint venture investment, contrary to HHS OIG guidance. . Winkelman v. CVS Caremark Corp., 827 F.3d 201, 213 (1st Cir. The following is a relevant excerpt from an SEC filing cited by the court in CKD: That excerpt discloses that the joint ventures do not qualify for safe-harbor protection and identifies the penalties that might be imposed should the company be found to be in violation of the relevant statutes. Family Medicine Call for an 3730(c)(3). (Am. To do so, the complaint must both allege the existence of a scheme to defraud and identify particularized false claims. Accordingly, the public-disclosure bar does not preclude the claims concerning unlawful medical-director agreements. June 11, 2014). (McManus, Caetlin) (Entered: 11/02/2021), (#10) Chief Judge F. Dennis Saylor, IV: ELECTRONIC ORDER entered granting #5 Motion for Leave to Appear Pro Hac Vice Added Megan S. Heinz. It then alleges, in general terms, that all claims from those facilities were tainted by kickbacks and therefore constitute false claims within the meaning of the False Claims Act. The SEC filings at issue state that (1) at most of our clinics, a relatively small number of physicians account for the referral of all or a significant portion of the patient base, (Def. Instructions on how to link CM/ECF accounts to upgraded pacer account can be found at # https://www.mad.uscourts.gov/caseinfo/nextgen-current-pacer-accounts.htm#link-account. Sanders, 553 U.S. 662 (2008). DaVita settled that case in October 2014 by entering into a Corporate Integrity Agreement ("CIA") with the Office of Counsel to the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services. 44). FMCNA decided that one of the keys to capturing new patients for its dialysis clinics was through its relationships with hospitals providing inpatient acute care. creative agency florida, list of calvary chapel pastors, call me kevin controversy,
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