Safeway Tells SCOTUS There’s No Fraud Knowledge Standard to Fix

Safeway Inc. told the US Supreme Court that it should pass on a whistleblower’s bid to reinstate his False Claims Act suit alleging that the company overcharged federal health-care programs for prescription drugs.

Thomas Proctor alleged that Safeway knowingly submitted false claims to Medicare and Medicaid when it reported its retail price for certain drugs as its “usual and customary price,” even though general public customers paid much less than the retail price. A district court rejected the suit, and a split panel for the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed.

The Seventh Circuit said Safeway ...