Abbott, Arriva Beat Whistleblower’s Diabetes Supply Fraud Appeal

A whistleblower failed to convince an appeals court to reopen a False Claim Act suit alleging Abbott Laboratories Inc., Arriva Medical LLC, and Alere Inc. improperly billed Medicare for diabetic testing supplies.

Troy Olhausen didn’t show that the companies knowingly submitted false statements to the government, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled Friday.

The Medicare rules he alleged the defendants violated are susceptible to multiple reasonable interpretations, the court said.

The suit alleged that the defendants defrauded Medicare by sending supplies to patients whose prescriptions on file were invalid, sending supplies without collecting signed patient ...