The U.S. Supreme Court has rendered a unanimous decision in the hotly-awaited False Claims Act case of Universal Health Services v. United States ex rel. Escobar. This case squarely presented the issue of whether liability may be based on the so-called "implied false certification" theory. Universal Health Service's ("UHS) problem originated when it was discovered that its contractor's employees who were providing mental health services and medication were not actually licensed to do so. The relator and government alleged that UHS had filed false claims for payment because they did not disclose this fact and thus had impliedly certified that it was in compliance with all laws, regulations, etc. The District Court granted UHS's motion to dismiss because no regulation that was violated was a material condition of payment. The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit reversed, holding that every submission of a claim implicitly represents regulatory compliance and that the regulations themselves provided conclusive evidence that compliance was a material condition of payment because the regulations expressly required facilities to adequately supervise staff as a condition of payment.
The Supreme Court vacated and remanded the matter in a manner that represents a compromise view of implied false certification.
The Court recognized the vitality of the implied false certification theory but also held that the First Circuit erred in adopting the government's expansive view that any statutory, regulatory, or contractual violation is material so long as the defendant knows that the Government would be entitled to refuse payment were it aware of the violation.
Instead, the Court held that the claims at issue may be actionable because they do more than merely demand payment; they fall squarely within the rule that representations that state the truth only so far as it goes, while omitting critical qualifying information, can be actionable misrepresentations. Here, UHS and its contractor, both in fact and through the billing codes it used, represented that it had provided specific types of treatment by credentialed personnel. These were misrepresentations and liability did not turn upon whether those requirements were expressly designated as conditions of payment.
The Court next turned to the False Claims Act's materiality requirement, and stated that statutory, regulatory, and contractual requirements are not automatically material even if they are labeled conditions of payment. Nor is the restriction supported by the Act's scienter requirement. A defendant can have "actual knowledge" that a condition is material even if the Government does not expressly call it a condition of payment. What matters is not the label that the Government attaches to a requirement, but whether the defendant knowingly violated a requirement that the defendant knows is material to the Government's payment decision.
The FCA's materiality requirement is demanding. An undisclosed fact is material if, for instance, "[n]o one can say with reason that the plaintiff would have signed this contract if informed of the likelihood" of the undisclosed fact. When evaluating the FCA's materiality requirement, the Government's decision to expressly identify a provision as a condition of payment is relevant, but not automatically dispositive. A misrepresentation cannot be deemed material merely because the Government designates compliance with a particular requirement as a condition of payment. Nor is the Government's option to decline to pay if it knew of the defendant's noncompliance sufficient for a finding of materiality. Materiality also cannot be found where noncompliance is minor or insubstantial.
Moreover, if the Government pays a particular claim in full despite its actual knowledge that certain requirements were violated, that is very strong evidence that those requirements are not material. The FCA thus does not support the Government's and First Circuit's expansive view that any statutory, regulatory, or contractual violation is material so long as the defendant knows that the Government would be entitled to refuse payment were it aware of the violation.
The materiality requirement, stringently interpreted, and the fact that the First Circuit's expansive view was rejected suggest that the game is far from over and that there still are viable defenses, facts allowing, to cases premised upon the implied false certification theory.
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