Community Health Owes Attorneys’ Fees in $98 Million Fraud Case

A group of 7 whistleblowers may receive attorneys’ fees for helping federal prosecutors reach a “global” $98 million False Claims Act settlement in 2014 with Community Health Systems Inc. for alleged improper hospital admissions, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled.

Community Health’s reliance on the FCA’s public disclosure bar and first-to-file rule was an improper “last-ditch” effort to deny fees to the whistleblowers, Judge Karen Nelson Moore said in a Tuesday decision to reverse and remand to a Tennessee district court.

The public disclosure bar precludes suits based on already disclosed information, and the first-to-file rule ...