Public Disclosure Bar Blocks Recovery in Stryker False Claims Act Case

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit rejected a whistleblower suit against Stryker Corp. and other pain pump manufacturers because the allegations were based on information that had already been made public. The Court upheld the District Court in ruling that the plaintiff failed to pass the “public disclosure bar” necessary for whistleblowers to recover under the False Claims Act (FCA). Whistleblowers are able to share in the government's recovery when they are integral to the discovery of the fraud.  The Eighth Circuit referenced a frequently cited quote in its opinion, which describes the public disclosure bar's function: "In principle, the FCA’s qui tam provision 'is designed to promote private citizen involvement in exposing fraud against the government, while at the same time,’ the public disclosure bar works to ‘prevent parasitic suits by opportunistic late-comers who add nothing to the exposure of the fraud.’” (emphasis added) Background In the early 2000's, doctors saw a spike in the number of patients developing chondrolysis, a rare and painful medical condition where the individual loses cartilage in their joints. Doctors began to suspect the spike was related to the use of medical devices known as “pain pumps” to deliver anesthetics via catheter into patients’ joint spaces. This concern triggered several studies on the effects of placing pain pumps in patients’ joint spaces and also spawned numerous p...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs