by Ben Vernia | December 16th, 2010
In an unpublished decision in U.S. ex rel. Woodruff v. Hawaii Pacific Health, the NInth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court’s dismissal of a qui tam suit brought by two doctors, who alleged that the hospitals and related practices submitted false claims and cost reports to Hawaii’s Medicaid program. In the brief decision, the court found that the evidence supported the trial court’s decision:
Relators cannot identify any specific statute or regulation, under either Hawaii or federal law, that would render false the UB-92 forms and related cost reports submitted by the HPH Entities. As the district court determined, the undisputed evidence suggests that the nurses were properly licensed to perform the various procedures at issue, even in the absence of physician supervision. Relators’ bare allegations to the contrary are insufficient to survive summary judgment.
