West Virginia Health System Stops Bid to Reopen Fraud Lawsuit

Thomas Health System Inc. and others defeated a whistleblower’s attempt to reinstate a False Claims Act suit alleging improper physician referrals, the Fourth Circuit said Thursday.

Liesa Kyer, a former nurse at Thomas Memorial Hospital, accused West Virginia-based Thomas Health and others of “nefarious schemes and sinister dealings” that were actually consistent with “running a lawful healthcare business,” Judge Julius N. Richardson of the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit said in an opinion to affirm dismissal.

Kyer didn’t plead with sufficient particularity that claims defendants presented to the government were false, the court said.

Kyer alleged that ...