Public Disclosure Bar Dooms Relator’s Suit Over Alleged Fraudulent Billing Scheme

Mealey's (November 9, 2020, 1:26 PM EST) -- SAN JOSE, Calif. — A federal judge in California on Nov. 6 dismissed without prejudice a woman’s second False Claims Act (FCA) lawsuit accusing two medical foundations and a group of doctors of fraudulently billing Medicare and Medicaid for breast cancer surgeries by upcoding services and unbundling procedures, finding that her request for information from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) triggered the application of the public disclosure bar....