Heart Procedure Fraud Suit Based on Public Info: 6th Circuit

The False Claims Act’s public disclosure bar precluded a whistleblower’s claims that a cardiologist, Community Health Systems, and others defrauded Medicare by billing for unnecessary cardiac procedures because the claims were based on a prior lawsuit, the Sixth Circuit affirmed Tuesday.

A district court in February properly dismissed Gurpreet Maur’s claims against the defendants because they were substantially the same as those publicly disclosed in an FCA case filed in 2007, United States ex rel. Wood M. Deming v. Jackson-Madison County General Hosp., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said.

Both the public disclosures and ...