Whistleblowers Urge Panel to Let Jury Hear Hospice Fraud Case

Whistleblowers tried to convince Tuesday an appeals court to reopen a False Claims Act suit alleging that Care Alternatives Inc. defrauded Medicare by providing hospice care to patients who weren’t eligible.

Counsel for the whistleblowers—former Care Alternatives employees—asserted that a New Jersey federal district court improperly rejected the suit for lack of materiality. The whistleblowers didn’t show that the company’s alleged failure to provide proper medical certification for the services affected Medicare’s payment decisions, Judge Juan R. Sánchez said in a December 2021 ruling.

That decision was incorrect because a jury could determine that a medical professional’s written certification is ...