U.S. Ex Rel. Mcfarland v. Florida Pharmacy Soln.

358 F. Supp. 3d 1316
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Florida
DecidedJuly 24, 2017
DocketCase No. 8:15-cv-1708-T-23TGW
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 358 F. Supp. 3d 1316 (U.S. Ex Rel. Mcfarland v. Florida Pharmacy Soln.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
U.S. Ex Rel. Mcfarland v. Florida Pharmacy Soln., 358 F. Supp. 3d 1316 (M.D. Fla. 2017).

Opinion

STEVEN D. MERRYDAY, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

*1321Employed in Arizona as a "regional marketing representative" for Florida Pharmacy Solutions, relator Brady McFarland purportedly uncovered through means not explained in the complaint a nationwide scheme by the seventy defendants to bilk Tricare for hundreds of million of dollars. Florida Pharmacy Solutions and six other defendant pharmacies "compound," or mix, ingredients to fill prescriptions for medicine not manufactured by pharmaceutical companies.

The pharmacies allegedly "employed," "partnered," or "contracted" with marketing companies. Each marketing company allegedly cold-called a Tricare beneficiary; if the beneficiary expressed interest in a pain cream, scar cream, or multi-vitamin, the marketing company "connected" the beneficiary to a physician or nurse practitioner. After speaking briefly on the phone with a beneficiary, the physician or nurse practitioner prescribed a pain cream, scar cream, or multi-vitamin. The complaint includes no explanation how the physician transmitted the prescription to a particular pharmacy, but Florida Pharmacy Solutions and the other pharmacies allegedly filled each prescription. Florida Pharmacy Solutions purportedly requested that a physician submit two types of "blanket authorizations." The first authorization allegedly permitted Florida Pharmacy Solutions to add and substitute ingredients at will, a tactic that enabled Florida Pharmacy Solutions to add several expensive but dubious ingredients. The second authorization permitted Florida Pharmacy Solutions to re-fill a patient's prescription without consulting either the prescribing physician or the patient. Under these authorizations, Florida Pharmacy Solutions allegedly included unnecessary ingredients in a prescription.

In addition to alleging medically unnecessary ingredients, McFarland alleges the submission of "legally false" claims. According to McFarland, the physicians and nurse practitioners, the marketing companies, and the pharmacies violated the Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits the "knowing[ ] and willful[ ]" solicitation, receipt, offering, or paying of a "remuneration" in exchange for a referral to a provider who may submit to Tricare (or another federal health care program) a claim for payment. 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7(b)(1)(A). Also, the Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits a remuneration for "purchasing, leasing, ordering, or arranging for or recommending purchasing, leasing, or ordering" a good or service for which Tricare might pay. 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7(b)(1)(B). The pharmacies allegedly paid a kickback to the marketing companies for each prescription filled, and in turn the marketing companies allegedly paid a kickback to the prescribing physicians and nurse practitioners for each prescription. Additionally, McFarland alleges that the pharmacies waived co-pays required by Tricare.

In a fifty-three page complaint, McFarland sues (Doc. 12) seven pharmacies, eleven marketing companies, fifty-one physicians and nurse practitioners, and a "related defendant." The complaint groups together the pharmacies (which the complaint designates the "Compounding Pharmacy Defendants"), groups together the marketing companies (which the complaint designates the "Marketing Defendants"), and groups together the physicians and nurse practitioners (which the complaint designates the "Prescribing Teledoctor Defendants"). Count I alleges that "all defendants" violated *132231 U.S.C. § 3729(a)(1)(A), which bars "knowingly present[ing], or caus[ing] to be presented, a false or fraudulent claim for payment or approval." Count II alleges that the "Compounding Pharmacy Defendants" and the "Prescribing Teledoctor Defendants" violated 31 U.S.C. § 3729(a)(1)(B), which bars "knowingly mak[ing], us[ing], or caus[ing] to be made or used, a false record or statement material to a false or fraudulent claim." Count III alleges that "all defendants" violated Section 3729(a)(1)(A) by submitting or causing the submission of a claim tainted by a kickback. Count IV alleges that the "Prescribing Teledoctor Defendants" violated Section 3729(a)(1)(A) by submitting or causing the submission of false or fraudulent claims for the telephonic consultations. Finally, count V alleges a conspiracy by all seventy defendants to violate the False Claims Act.

Thirty-two defendants move severally to dismiss the complaint or the action.1 Four defendants cite the False Claims Act's public-disclosure bar and move to dismiss the action under either Rules 12(b)(1) or (6), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ; three move under Rule 12(b)(2) to dismiss the action for lack of personal jurisdiction; and twenty-nine move under Rule 12(b)(6) to dismiss the complaint for violating Rules 8(a) and 9(b).2 Without leave, more than a dozen defendants attempt to "join" or "adopt" the motion of another defendant. Several defendants purport to adopt a motion under Rule 10(c), which permits a motion to adopt a "statement in a pleading." Because a motion is not a "pleading," the unauthorized attempts to adopt the argument in another motion lack effect.3

DISCUSSION

1. Motions to dismiss for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction

Prashanth Ramakrishna Rao, M.D., and 1st Care M.D. move (Docs. 204 and 291 at 11 n.3) under Rule 12(b)(1) to dismiss the action and argue that the False Claims Act's public-disclosure bar divests subject-matter jurisdiction. Two defendants move (Doc. 248) under Rule 12(b)(6) to dismiss the action and cite the public-disclosure bar.4

Whether under Rule 12(b)(1) or Rule 12(b)(6), the motions to dismiss warrant *1323denial because no public disclosure permits identifying a particular defendant in this action.5 In Cooper v. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, Inc. , 19 F.3d 562 (11th Cir. 1994), the relator alleged that BCBS of Florida knowingly submitted to Medicare several claims that a "Medicare Secondary Payor" law required BCBS of Florida to pay. Two years before the relator sued, a General Accountability Office report described "widespread MSP fraud" and named "other insurance companies," but the GAO report never mentioned BCBS of Florida. Cooper holds that a public disclosure which exposes widespread fraud but which fails to specifically identify the defendant cannot trigger the public-disclosure bar.

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Bluebook (online)
358 F. Supp. 3d 1316, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/us-ex-rel-mcfarland-v-florida-pharmacy-soln-flmd-2017.